Feminist talk

When did you first realise how your freedom of expression or association could be violated online? When did you first "make the connection" between human rights and internet rights as a women human rights defender? The "Connect Your Rights campaign" campaign and GenderIT.org is calling for submissions of blogs, poems, digital stories, artwork and other visuals to help others make the connection.

The net is not neutral. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the experience of women bloggers. Women bloggers face an unprecedented level of harassment and abuse online - both in terms of the volume and vitriol of attacks. But now women writers everywhere are standing up and speaking out against cyberharassment.

This year we call on campaigners to collectively gather evidence for transformation, strengthen our capacity for safer experiences online and amplify our rights in addressing technology-related violence against women. Take control of technology to end violence against women.

APC WNSP is sharing some preliminary results of the gender report cards initiative. This was a pilot initiative put forward by the Association for Progressive Communications to monitor and assess the level of gender parity and inclusion at this year's Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Although the numbers of sessions monitored were relatively small, and that a deeper analysis is needed, the…

Aisha Lee Shaheed was one of the participants of the two-day workshop “Women’s Rights and Internet Governance” convened by the APC WNSP late September 2011, in Nairobi, Kenya, just prior to the 6th Annual Internet Governance Forum. In her blog post, Aisha recounts how the workshop shifted her perspective on internet governance and why she as a women human rights defender should care about it.

The Gender Report Card put forward by the Association for Progressive Communications is a simple but strategic way to get a more accurate sense of women's participation at the IGF. Download it! You can help by printing it out and bringing it to your workshops, or you can share it online with other IGF participants.

Lebo shares with the GenderIT.org readers how Women’s Net and its partners in South Africa advocate for the end of violence against women through a seminar and a Tweet-up. The seminar was part of the MDG3 Fund /APC Women project, Women’sNet is the South Africa partner.

From September 1st to 3rd the first ever Southern African Internet Governance Forum (SA IGF) kicks off in Johannesburg in preparation for the global UN internet forum to be held in Kenya. The event is aimed at ensuring that the views and voices of Southern Africa are represented in Kenya at the end of the month. Participants from all fifteen Southern African nations are expected at the forum.…

"New spaces made available to women in the digital world are also becoming spaces for violence against women to occur", notes Lenlen in her feminist talk. In her article, she outlines some of these new emergent forms of violence against women in the Philippines, in the hope of raising awareness and engendering appropriate responses from all stakeholders.

The net has often been portrayed by the media in India as "being a lair of sexual predators". Grady looks at some of the contradictions between policy and practice that were revealed by the EROTICS research in India, which explored the ways that young women negotiate risks online as they strategically use the internet to explore, define and challenge boundaries of gender and sexual norms.