Latin America

The Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Conference (one of the Preparatory Conferences for the World Summit on the Information Society) was held in Bávaro, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, from the 29th to the 31st of January, 2003. In this article, Magaly Pazello, a member of the DAWN network, makes a report of the event and points out the small participation of women's groups and feminist…

"Information technology obviously will not solve the world's problems. But wisely deployed and developed, it has proven to be a powerful tool for advancing social causes. One of the social groups that has been most dynamic in using this technology innovatively for social progress, is the women's movement; and in many aspects, the South has exerted leadership in this process."

María Isabel and María Alejandra Davidziuk compare the findings of four national reports from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia undertaken as part of the APC WNSP project “Strengthening women’s strategic use of ICTs to combat violence against women and girls”. In their analysis they look at some barriers (both institutional and cultural) that need to be overcome in order for ICTs to be…

Cristina Peralta examines the situation in Argentina, where few cases of VAW using ICTs have been denounced. One study found that a small percentage of young girls had been contacted by unknown people via chat or Facebook before disappearing. Cell phones are also used for controlling women's mobility and have become one of the first artifacts to be destroyed by the partner during violent…

In this paper, Ingrid Leao, Thais Lapa and Tamara Amoroso discuss violence against women in the media, with advertisement and TV show examples. It also looks at civil society expectations for the first National Conference on Communications, to be held in December 2009. It examines the use of social networks like Orkut and Twitter; denouncements of VAW practices, such as cyber-bullying of teenage…

Lucy Niño and Lida Nuñez look at how the Colombian government has paid special attention to ICT policies, offering ICT literacy programmes and ICT inclusion in marginalised areas, while at the same time ICTs are used to promote prostitution and pornography produced in the country via the internet and cellphones. Government has produced a campaign to foster a “healthy use” of internet and to…

Edited by Sophia Huyer and Nancy Hafkin, this book collects essays by Sonia N. Jorge, Shafika Isaacs, Shoba Arun, Richard Heeks, Sharon Morgan, Maria Garrido, Raul Roman, and Vikas Nath on the current landscape of gender and ICT. According to Claudia Morell, the book "provides an excellent overview of the critical issues addressing the global participation of girls and women in today's…

The publication features a new measuring instrument which combines statistical indicators with analytical work on policies and their implementation. Beyond it is complemented with quantitative and qualitative research in a chapter on ‘women in the information society' .

This document presents an analysis of the context in which many of the scenarios linked to the WSIS are set - binded to other issues such as global commerce, human rights and Internet governance. The author affirms that the development of these scenarios impact directly the WSIS agenda, excepting the issues related to human rights, which are not raising enough concern to the UN member states.

This study presents the current status of Gender and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) based on the survey of related projects, research and actions from the standpoint of various social stakeholders: state, private sector, academia and the civil society. This work focuses on the application of the gender perspective – whether explicit or not.