Internet Governance

Fatimata Seye Sylla is a key figure in the Senegalese internetⁱ community. She worked for ten years within the Senegalese governmentⁱ, and for nine years in the private sector. She conducted the first national project to introduce ICTⁱ in the educational system. Fatimata shares with GenderIT.orgⁱ why she came to Vilnius and what the IGF means to her personally and to women's rightsⁱ.

The Association for Progressive Communicationsⁱ (APC), NUPEF and the Registry of Internetⁱ Domain Nameⁱs for Latin America and the Caribbean sponsored the Third Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Internet Governance Forum ⁱ(IGF), held in Ecuador in early August 2010. How might this regional meeting and the IGF impact each other? What recommendations and concerns emerged from the regional process? To what extent were gender ⁱissues represented at the Latin American meeting? Valeria Betancourt, Latin America policyⁱ coordinator for APC and Dafne Plou, regional coordinator of APC's Women's Network Support Programme (APC WNSP) in Latin America, have some answers.

The Internet Governance Forum ⁱ(IGF) has been a challenging space for both women's rightsⁱ advocates and for broader constituencies engaged in advocacyⁱ for gender equalityⁱ and sexuality related rights. In the fifth and final year of its mandate, women's rightsⁱ are still being dwarfed as a critical issue to be debated in this arena, while sexuality issues, although present, are not seen as a matter of rights. In preparation for this year's IGF, this briefing document highlights key issues on internetⁱ regulationⁱ that are relevant for gender ⁱequality and sexuality. It also brings to the debate findings from various research initiatives undertaken by APC and key partners, including a cross-country research initiative - EROTICS - that is being conducted in five countries: Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa and the United Stateⁱs.

Authors Sonia Corrêa, Marina Maria and Jandira Queiroz document how gender ⁱand sexuality have been at the heart of internetⁱ regulationⁱ debates in Brazil. However, this centrality does not necessarily translate to the discourses, analysis and the political claims of social actors involved in sexual politics, on the one hand, and digital politics, on the other. In the authors' view, there is no clarity or positioning among feminists and LGBTⁱ activists regarding the ways in which gender and sexuality issues are at play in the political dynamics of internet regulation. Further no strong interaction exists between communication rights advocates and the world of sexual politics. Nevertheless the authors perceive cyber activists' commitment to privacyⁱ rights as very auspicious for sexual and reproductive rights.