| Contribution :
|
ARTICLE 19 welcomes the efforts of the ITU and its Council Working Group on International Internet-Related Public Policy Issues (CWG-Internet) to engage in a multistakeholder process by holding this Open Consultation.
Generally, digital divides are gaps between individuals, households, businesses, and geographic areas that are at different levels, whether socially or economically, with regard to their opportunities to use, develop, and benefit from the Internet and information and communication technologies (ICTs). The gender digital divide is both a consequence and cause of systemic violations of women’s human rights, both online and offline. It is a reflection of existing realities: the discrimination and marginalization that women face in society--not only on the basis of gender, but also through compounding factors rooted in location, economic status, age, racial or ethnic origin, and education--yield barriers to using, developing, and benefiting from the Internet and ICTs. Fundamentally, it is the free and full exercise of human rights that determine our ability to use, develop, and benefit from these technologies.
This submission responds to two of the five questions provided in this open consultation.
In response to Question Five, we assert that although infrastructural access remains a major challenge to bridging the gender digital divide, technology-related violence against women that exists even when women are able to access the Internet and ICTs remains a major issue that is not yet sufficiently addressed by relevant stakeholders. In response to this gap, these stakeholders should adopt a human rights framework in considering the gender digital divide.
In response to Question One, we contend that to ensure the opportunities necessary for women to use and benefit from the Internet, the spaces in which Internet-related policy and standards decision-making occurs must be upheld by structures that deliberately foster and encourage the inclusion of individuals that have been disproportionately disenfranchised from access, including women. Specifically, we note the anti-harassment measures undertaken in recent years by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The initiatives taken by these respective communities serve as examples from which other bodies, including the ITU, can draw.
|
