Women's human rights: violence against women, pornography and ICTs

The position paper presented y by Jac sm Kee from APC WNSP at Women Claiming The Information Society (WOCTIS), 11 September 2005, Berlin.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approval of .xxx as a global top level domain for sexually explicit materials in the internet received murmurs of protest from several governments, particularly from Brazil and the United States. In the discussions raised about this case, many ICT policy advocates and experts stated that with or without .xxx, pornography will continue to exist and flourish on the internet, and centred their concerns around the undue government intervention and influence on a supposedly independent body.
How do gender, and women’s rights advocates intervene within this debate? When we are calling for freedom of expression and information, who is it for, and who often gets unheard in the decision-making processes?

Author: Jac sm Kee
Published by: APC Women's Networking Support Programme
Year of publishing: 2005
Type: Policy Papers
Process: World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
Languages covered: English
Regional and country focus: Global
Issues covered: Violence Against Women  
Available for download in <PDF format >

Related documents:
Take Back The Tech! Reclaiming ICT to end violence against women
Cultivating Violence Through Technology? Exploring the Connections between Internet Communication Technologies (ICT) and Violence Against Women (VAW)
The Use of New Communication and Information Technologies for the Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children
Search history: Examining pornography on the internet
THE WORLD WIDE WEB OF DESIRE: Content Regulation on the Internet

Related Events:
Women claiming the information society (WOCTIS)