SECTION J: PROMOTE ICT IN WOMEN'S RIGHTS

What is the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women?

The main focus of the session will be on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, including current challenges that affect its implementation and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Commission will undertake a review of progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 20 years after its adoption at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.

The review (Beijing+20) will also include the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly, the first five-year assessment conducted after the adoption of the Platform for Action, which highlighted further actions and initiatives. The session will also address opportunities for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda.

Why is it important?

The APC Women’s Rights Programme will be participating in the event since this space is very relevant to our work against violence against women, on women’s representation in media and online spaces, and on access and participation in the science and technology fields. We consider the reprioritisation of Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action in the Beijing+20 review to be particularly important.

We will be pushing for greater recognition of the role that ICT plays in the improvement of women’s lives and their ability to exercise their rights, but also acknowledging the need to address problems such as technology-based violence against women. After two decades, going beyond just tools and representation in Section J feels like an extreme need.

Our anchors are the universal human rights standards, with special attention to the current global policy framework on women’s empowerment and gender equality, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and its Section J, the feminist analysis/positions around rights, and how the internet makes it more complex. This is why we will present the final findings of the From impunity to justice research, after three years of intensive work under APC’s End violence: Women’s rights and safety online project, conducted in partnership with seven organisations from diverse countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan and the Philippines, with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS). We will also present our 10 points on Section J to walk through how technology issues impacts women’s rights.

What is the campaign?

APC wants to reprioritise Section J in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action due to the important role that media and internet and communication technologies play in both advancing and hindering women’s rights. While APC staff members advocate at CSW59, GenderIT.org and Take Back the Tech! will simultaneously lead an online campaign to raise awareness around Section J and work towards a feminist internet. Our main goal is to encourage women’s rights organisations and activists to pay more attention to the relationship between gender and technology. To do this, we have created resources laying out the issues and our demands from governments, the private sector and civil society, and we will be tweeting 9-13 March under #SectionJ.

How can you participate?

Join us on Twitter!

APC will be actively updating from CSW on Twitter. We will tweet from:

We will use the hashtags:

  • #SectionJ
  • #Beijing20
  • #CSW59
  • #genderit
  • #takebackthetech
  • #genderites
  • #dominemoslastic

During the first week of the CSW (Tuesday 9 -Friday 13 of March), we will carry a campaign on Twitter advocating for the reprioritisation of Section J, and you can support us by tweeting and retweeting a set of messages we designed for the occasion.

Suggested tweets

Monday 9/3

Tuesday 10/3

Wednesday 11/3

Thursday 12/3

  • Women’s rights activists, do you know how internet and communication rights affect your work? http://bit.ly/1DYMAHR #SectionJ @UN_Women
  • ICT affects freedom of expression/information, right to work/privacy. Critical for women’s rights #SectionJ http://bit.ly/1DYMAHR @UN_Women
  • #SectionJ: “[T]he potential exists for the media to make a far greater contribution to the advancement of women” #genderit http://bit.ly/1DYMAHR @UN_Women

Friday 13/3

  • Where does tech-based #VAW fit in the #SectionJ? #genderit Let’s make it real! http://bit.ly/1BaHZCC @UN_Women
  • APC leading high-level panel to reprioritise #SectionJ at #CSW59 right now! http://bit.ly/1GnsQRw @UN_Women
  • APC launches End Violence research findings today at #BPFA20 #genderit http://bit.ly/1BaHZCC @UN_Women

Spread the word!

Disseminating information about our events at CSW is one way you can collaborate. The strategic dates will be Monday 9 March and Friday 13 March. Please share with your contacts and networks the information about the events.

Events APC is organising and co-organising

Monday, 9 March 2015, 1:15-2:30 PM, Conference Room E – GA Building

High-level panel: “Reprioritising Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action – Critical issues on the human rights of women and girls and the internet”, Permanent Mission of Estonia to the UN and Association for Progressive Communications, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and National Women’s Institute of Costa Rica (INAMU) 

Friday, 13 March 2015, 10:30 AM, Armenian Centre

Panel: “Ending violence against women online: Effective responses to promote women’s rights and safety,” Association for Progressive Communications

This panel will share the findings of a three-year research project exploring the adequacy and effectiveness of domestic legal remedies and corporate policies in relation to violence against women online, developed with seven partners from Colombia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan and the Philippines. The event will include speakers from government, the women’s movement, the private sector and academics to discuss the research results and make recommendations on the way forward.

Events where APC has been invited as speaker

Monday, 9 March 2015, 10:00-11:15 AM, GA Building, Conference Room E

Side event: “Countering cyber violence against women,” Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) 

The event will discuss how cyber violence against women challenges parliamentarians, policy makers and internet service providers everywhere. It will examine what action can be taken to promote safe and responsible use of online technology. Special emphasis will be placed on strong legislation to address and provide avenues of redress for cyber violence against women. Based on the experience of some countries, the event will identify emerging trends and lessons learned from them. The panel will also discuss how internet service providers can be more accountable for the protection of users’ privacy and security and what proactive steps could be taken to eradicate violence against women online.

Friday, 13 March 2015, 9:30 AM-6:00 PM, ECOSOC Chamber, Conference Building

High-level panel: “Intergenerational dialogue,” UN Women

A conversation among various gender equality advocates and stakeholders across generations to discuss strategies and perspectives that can accelerate the achieving of gender equality by 2030. Jac sm Kee, APC’s Women’s Rights Programme manager, will be speaking.

Tuesday, 17 March 2015, 10.30-12:00 AM, Church Centre

Panel: “Women and technology: Effective documentation of sexual violence and advocacy,” Witness

Panelists will discuss how they document sexual violence or stories of sexual violence using technology and the way the conduct advocacies at local/domestic, regional and international levels.

CSW activities

Side events agenda

NGO events agenda

Share stuff!

Share our articles on CSW and the End Violence research findings with your friends, family and colleagues.

a) Statements and papers of interest

b) GenderIT.org special editions on the CSW

c) Research on technology-based violence against women

d) Other resources

e) Articles of interest

Check the full list of background readings here.

Write something! 

Feminist Talk for GenderIT.org is an open blogging space for everyone with an analysis of gender and ICT policy issues. If you are following the event onsite or even remotely via Twitter or webcast and you feel inspired by it, please write a short blog post (not longer than 1500 words) and send it to genderit@apcwomen.org. We will upload it to GenderIT.org and give to it the visibility it deserves!

If you want to write specifically about ICT and violence against women, create an account with Take Back the Tech! and post your blog or send it to sara.baker@takebackthetech.net.

Happy campaigning!

Issue
Communication Rights
Media | Representation