igf

We gathered some of the reflections from the participation of OVOF country partners in this year’s IGF as relates to their work with the OVOF project in their respective countries.

The partners of Our Voices, Our Futures (OVOF) meet at the 17th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Ethiopia on November 28 through December 2, 2022, to amplify the voices of structurally marginalised folks in six countries from Asia and Africa.

Can policy and law accommodate genders that are not confined by the binaries or are fluid? Spaces around governance often display an acute dysphasia and inability to comprehend what lies beyond and between categories, especially of gender.

The Internet Governance Forum has been valuable as a multistakeholder space that facilitates the discussion and dialogue of public policy issues pertaining to the Internet. Over the years several feminists, activists and others interested in diverse representation have been participating in IGF and observing how concerns related to gender, sexuality, and the internet are raised and addressed.…

In IGF 2015 gender report cards were completed for a total of 107 workshops – more than double the 51 regional workshops reported on in 2015. A summary and analysis of the discussion and comments are included here.

The fact that the Internet allows women to be anonymous has greatly aided in increased freedom of expression as well as in combating sexual discrimination, violence as well as domestic abuse. Even with the points in favour of right to anonymity being far and wide, it is not seen as a priority in many countries. Human rights activists and the civil society are only beginning to acknowledge that…

Access is a right. In June this year, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution that condemns "measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online" and affirmed that "the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online." But what does access really mean? How important is it to women, especially to marginalized women?

The IGF Best Practice Forum on Online Abuse and Gender-Based Violence Against Women took place in Joao Pessoa, Brazil in November 2015. Representatives of civil society, academia and the private sector went through some of the key highlights and recommendations from the BPF but opened it up at different junctures for inputs and responses.

The 2015 IGF Best Practice Forum (BPF) on Online Abuse and Gender-Based Violence Against Women used an open and inclusive process to gather a broad variety of views and inputs on this multidimensional problem over nine months. As a result of this community-driven process, the BPF’s draft findings reflect a rich diversity of responses from various stakeholders and regions regarding the issue.

For nine years, feminist activists struggled to bring gender issues out of the peripheries at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The 2015 IGF which took place in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, proved that the link between gender and internet governance is being more and more recognised. Women accounted for 38% of onsite participants. Gender, women's and sexual rights was mentioned in at least 15…