Critically Absent: Women in Internet Governance: A Policy Advocacy Toolkit

This toolkit from the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Women's Networking Support Program (WNSP) encourages women and their organisations to engage in political discussions regarding internet development with a vision of inclusion, fairness, and respect for women’s rights. The authors' visions are that the toolkit be used to raise awareness and encourage participation in a new environment where women cannot and should not be absent.

Contents include:

• Introduction, by Dafne Plou - "ICTs [information and communication technologies] create new scenarios, new ways for people to live and these reflect real-life problems. Women should assert their rights here too, with determination and without delay. Women may not have been an active part of this conversation when it started, but the rapid pace of change online, means they need to participate now to ensure that the future of the internet is shaped taking into account women's rights concerns....This Policy Advocacy Toolkit encourages women and their organizations to engage in a political discussion about the promotion of internet development with a vision of inclusion, fairness and respect for human rights. We expect to be a tool that can be used to raise awareness and encourage participation in a new environment where women cannot and should not be absent."
• Internet Governance and Gender Issues, by Avri Doria - "Two of the more prominent organisations focused on internet governance are the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), initiated by the United Nations (UN) in response to the Tunis Agenda, and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)....The first recommendation then is that women in general and especially women with a gender oriented agenda need to get involved with the Internet governance institution of their choice and need to look toward leadership....Whether it is the opportunities in the IGF for comment on every issues involved in the program of the yearly meeting, or in ICANN where every policy goes through several periods of public comment, comments pointing out gender's relevance to the issue must be submitted.
• Women's Freedom of Expression in the Internet, by Margarita Salas - "Women journalists and communicators face harassment both online and offline, so they've come up with some creative solutions to fight against it." These include: (i) tell others when you are being harassed; (ii) use the tools of the trade ("For example, Think Progress reporter Alyssa Rosenberg began tweeting the full names and institutional affiliations of her harassers under the #ThreatoftheDay hashtag..."); (iii) look up the closest journalist association and start talking to other female journalists that are facing the same challenges; (iv) know the legislation that applies in your country regarding harassment and online communications; if there are no applicable policies or regulations, start advocating to change that situation.
• Internet, Women and Porn, by Bruno Dallacort Zilli - "The next steps is to ask ourselves what can be done to enhance online safety that stimulates ... [women's] agency, through [a dialogue on] the effects of vigilantism, censorship, and regulation on women's sexuality online."
• Internet Democracy and the Feminist Movement, by Anja Kovacs - "The lack of involvement of feminists in debates on content control is therefore problematic on many levels. It not only leaves uncontested implicit and explicit definitions of content that is 'harmful' to women, but also...allows for the uncontested emergence of a culture of online surveillance and control that ultimately will do little to empower women and may do them much harm."
• Women, Privacy and Anonymity: More than Data Protection, by Women's Legal and Human Rights Bureau Resources - "The ICT arena has become a site of continuing gender inequality. Different forms of violence are committed against women with the use and within the realm of ICTs. Conversely, it has been shown that ICTs can be a platform for women's empowerment. ICTs not only provide women with information and education, they can also provide women with spaces for self-expression, freedom of association and enjoyment of sexual rights....First, there is a need for recognition and serious attention to the incidence of technology-related VAW [violence against women]....Second, women must challenge power relations between men and women by using ICTs for activism to combat violence against women...through actions such as:
  • be aware of their rights and know that these rights are to be respected, protected and fulfilled even in an online environment;
  • remain vigilant when participating online to ensure safety and privacy;
  • build and join networks and organize online campaigns to fight violence against women;
  • form task forces or watch groups to monitor violations online;
  • document and report violations, and encourage friends, family members and others to do the same;
  • engage and urge governments and concerned authorities to implement measures in preventing and ending violence against women;
  • and create hotlines and set up interactive websites where women can ask and answer questions and respond to victims of violence.
  Lastly, the government must fulfill its obligations to respect, protect, and promote women's human rights."

The concluding pages of the policy toolkit offer annotated descriptions of relevant resources.