Impact of ICTs on women's participation in public and political life Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Rights Programme, January 2013

Who we are / what we do  International network of organisations using ICTs for social justice – 43 members around the world  Womens rights programme & ICT policy programme  Women’s rights programme – violence against women, sexual rights, evaluation

What is the issue  Information and Communication Technologies ICTs are not gender neutral – produced, used and distributed in a context of unequal power relations  For marginalised groups with access, ICTs present possibilities to construct, deconstruct and reconfigure both their own identities and the structures – whether government, media or social – within which they live  ICTs also enable new forms of discrimination, violence and exclusion

What are our entry points?  Women and marginalised communities are a key interest group in how the internet is governed, yet are are largely absent from spaces where decisions are made  When we access the internet it is with all of our civil and political rights intact  Norms and values offline are reflected online including – in discrimination and exclusion and in responses

Shifts and nuances  Internet governance  Anonymity  Privacy and consent  New actors  Defining harm  No recognition for extended notions / extended definitions of ‘personhood’  Interaction as workers, content producers, ‘ordinary’ users

Opening new possibilities  Public participation – Tahrir bodyguards, rape of black lesbians in SA  Organising – Meem  Subversion – Pink Chaadi, Uprising of Women in Arab World  Expanding citizenship  Performing identity, negotiating restrictions

Closing down spaces  Shut downs – DRC October 2012  Censorship, regulation and pornography  Misogyny and hate speech  Rape videos, privacy and consent  WHRDs – Egypt, Uganda  Defining harm, mobilising anxiety  Double standards of prosecution

Who are the actors  Individual users - norms and values (Technical community; Opus Dei -.fam)  Private sector - no transparency on regulations & enforcement - tracking technologies & privacy control - privatisation of access  State - protection vs rights framework

Recommendations  Extending definitions of personhood  Expanded debate on ‘right to forget’  Engaging private sector  Engage in internet governance eg IGF  Indicators for CEDAW report cards  Post-2015 development agenda  WSIS +10