Agenda

Our session is based on Resolution A/RES/80/173, which calls upon all action line facilitators to address gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as a core theme within their work. This means treating gender not as an “add-on” but a as cross-cutting issue across all WSIS action lines, developing specific goals, targets, and indicators within them so that gender  integration is meaningfully realized. In the session we will examine several action lines where the deployment of AI systems has significant implications for women, girls, and gender-diverse groups, for example:

C1. – The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development: On the one hand, as governments increasingly adopt AI systems in public service  and decision-making processes, it is essential to develop and implement specific indicators and metrics that capture how these technologies may disproportionately affect women, girls, and gender-diverse people. Without such measures, AI systems risk infringing on privacy rights, reinforcing existing inequalities, and negatively impacting the well-being and human rights of these groups. On the other hand, gender perspectives must be systematically integrated into public policies governing the adoption and use of AI in public administration. This can be achieved, for example, through meaningful consultation with civil society organizations and experts who can contribute to the development of gender-responsive impact assessments, as well as monitoring, evaluation, and accountability frameworks. Such participatory approaches can help ensure that AI policies and systems are informed by diverse experiences and evidence, while identifying and mitigating potential harm before they occur. Without the integration of gender perspectives, public-sector AI initiatives risk overlooking the knowledge, experiences, and concerns of women, girls, and gender-diverse people. Consequently, they may fail to adequately identify, prevent, and address gender-based harms and discrimination embedded within AI systems.

C3. – Access to information and knowledge: This session recognizes the impact of AI on access to information and information integrity, particularly in relation to information disorders. These phenomena pose significant threats to democracy and human rights, while affecting women, girls, and gender-diverse people in distinct and disproportionate ways. For example, evidence suggests that content related to sexual and reproductive health and rights is frequently subject to automated content moderation systems that lack adequate gender-sensitive oversight. As a result, these systems often fail to account for the specific harms and risks that algorithmic decision-making can pose to historically marginalized and vulnerable groups, many of whom rely on social media platforms and online spaces to access information about their rights, health, and well-being. In this context, it is imperative to strengthen the accountability of online platforms and social media companies by requiring robust human rights due diligence processes and the systematic integration of gender perspectives into the design, deployment, and governance of their products and services. This should include mandatory transparency reporting with dedicated gender-focused metrics and indicators, as well as greater scrutiny of how algorithms and AI-driven systems contribute to the amplification of misinformation and disinformation.

C4. – Capacity building: On the one hand, it is essential to promote sustained, human rights-based, and gender-responsive digital literacy strategies that empower women, girls, and gender-diverse people to engage with the internet and digital technologies autonomously, safely, responsibly, and confidently. This is particularly important in the context of the growing integration of AI into digital environments, where these groups may face heightened risks, including TFGBV. On the other hand, mainstreaming gender equality into AI capacity-building efforts can take several forms. These include increasing leadership opportunities for women and gender-diverse people within AI organizations; providing AI practitioners with training in gender-responsive design and development; expanding meaningful connectivity and digital access for women and marginalized gender groups; and securing public financing commitments to support the development and deployment of gender-responsive AI services, particularly in the Global South. 

C5. – Building confidence and security in use of ICTs: Our session argues that ensuring democratic and inclusive participation in AI governance is essential to building trust and confidence in the use of ICTs. We underscore the critical role that women, girls, and gender-diverse people play in: 1). Advancing a people-centered approach to the development, deployment, and governance of AI systems by bringing their priorities, concerns, and lived experiences to the forefront. These include issues such as privacy, data protection, transparency, accountability, and the prevention of and protection against TFGBV. 2). Shaping gender-responsive indicators, goals, metrics, and evaluation frameworks for AI governance, ensuring that these systems are designed and assessed in ways that promote equality, inclusion, and respect for human rights.

C11. – International and regional cooperation: We acknowledge that inequalities among States and prevailing geopolitical dynamics influence the development of gender-responsive indicators for the design, deployment, and governance of AI systems. In this context, we argue that the meaningful inclusion of governments from the Global South in AI governance processes must be a priority. Achieving this requires sustained capacity-building efforts and adequate financial resources to ensure that the needs, priorities, and rights of women, girls, and gender-diverse people across all regions are effectively represented and addressed. We also emphasize the importance of international and regional cooperation in strengthening the capacity of national statistical systems and methodologies, enabling all countries to meet the growing demand for gender-responsive data, metrics, and indicators. These efforts should be incorporated into a shared implementation roadmap for AI governance. Such a roadmap should seek to enhance coherence between the WSIS framework and related processes, including the Global Digital Compact, while promoting a coordinated, inclusive, and resource-efficient approach to integrating gender-responsive indicators into digital governance and international digital cooperation.