Day 4 | Session 10: Integrating gender into the global digital rights agenda

Friday, 2 July, 2021 [4:00 - 5:30 UTC]

Objective: This session will work towards helping participants understand and develop gender perspectives to policy advocacy. While the session will address gender specific advocacy spaces, it will also introduce ways to incorporate gender perspectives and experiences in other advocacy initiatives. The successes, especially what it took to get there and challenges or limitations will help the participants shape and influence their initiatives in the future.

Session plan:

• Why does gender matter in digital rights policy advocacy?
• Importance of  linking women’s rights advocacy to digital rights advocacy (language, issues, intersectionality and allyship) 
• Thematic issues (eg surveillance, access, sexuality, online gender based violence (GBV), expression and association) 
• Challenges and opportunities of ‘doing gender’ in digital rights advocacy 
• Actors / allies / networks  for engaging in advocacy 
• Spaces (eg CEDAW and others)
• Example of successful advocacy - Case study on online gender based violence and the 10 years of advocacy (and multi-pronged strategy) it took to get the resolution on violence against women and girls in a digital age
• How can we incorporate gender perspectives in all policy advocacy initiatives?

*Reading materials and Tables are hyperlinked, please click the text to access

Reading Materials:

Suggested Readings 

1. Feminist Internet, Feminist Principles of the Internet
2. NGO CSW/NY, A Guide for NGOs and Women’s Human Rights Activists at the UN and CSW
3. Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, A Manual For and About Women Human Rights Defenders
4. World Wide Web Foundation, Advancing Women’s Rights Online: Gaps and Opportunities in Policy and Research

Additional Readings

1. UN Women, The Digital Revolution: Implications for Gender Equality and Women’s Rights 25 Years after Beijing
2. ICRW Reports on Technology Facilitated, Gender Based Violence:
   • Defining and measuring technology facilitated gender-based violence 
   • Technology facilitated gender-based violence: What is it, and how do we measure it?
3. UN Human Rights Council, Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: Promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet: ways to bridge the gender digital divide from a human rights perspective
4. UN Women, UN Gender Laws and Policies
5. WHO, on behalf of the United Nations VAW-IAWGED, Violence Against Women Prevalence Estimate
6. Kate Edrinn, Advocacy Tools Dropbox 
7. OECD, Bridging the Digital Gender Divide 

Representations:

1. Gender Spaces at the UN
2. Gender Based Attitudes Towards Online Violence
3. Is the Web Really Empowering Women
4. Technology Facilitated Gender Based Violence Explainer

📌 Presentation Slide

🔖 Read Day 4 Summary Here