IWTC WOMEN'S GLOBALNET #208
Initiatives and Activities of Women Worldwide
By Anne S. Walker

September 20, 2002

PUTTING GENDER ON THE AGENDA OF WSIS: AN UPDATE

(Please refer to IWTC Women's Globalnet #198 (July 18) for background related to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) -December 2003, Geneva and 2005, Tunisia- and on efforts to place gender firmly at the centre of the WSIS preparatory process. Copies of IWTC Women's Globalnet can be found on the IWTC website at: )

Putting Gender on the Agenda.....
In the weeks leading up to the first WSIS PrepCom in Geneva in July 2002, strategizing on ways in which gender could be made central to the WSIS planning process was high on the agenda of several women and media groups, including IWTC, the APC Women's Network Support Programme (APC/WNSP), and Isis international/Manila.

The CRIS Campaign
Karen Banks of APC/WNSP and Anne S. Walker of IWTC are also members of the CRIS campaign (Communication Rights in the Information Society) a campaign launched by the Platform for Communication Rights, -a group of communications researchers, practitioners, writers and policy-makers, men and women, set up in 1996. Including a gender perspective as an integral part of any discussions on information rights also became part of CRIS campaign strategizing.

WSIS Gender Caucus
Separate to this, a WSIS Gender Caucus was formed during the African Regional Preparatory Conference (Bamako 2002), -which took place in Mali from 25-30th May 2002. Formed as a multi-stakeholder group consisting of women and men from national governments, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and the United Nations system, the strategic objective of the WSIS-Gender Caucus is also to ensure that gender equality and womenÕs rights is integrated into WSIS and its outcome processes.

An NGO Gender Issues Strategy:
In order to further encourage the full participation of NGOs from every world region in the discussion around gender issues and perspectives in the Information Society and in media policy as it relates to gender in general, IWTC, with APC/WNSP, Isis International/Manila and other interested womenÕs information and media networks, put together a plan to hold WSIS and gender panels and discussions at several international and regional meetings during 2002 and 2003. From these open discussions, it is hoped that new ideas and perspectives will become part of overall Civil Society organizing strategies.

Included amongst the meetings where panels and discussions are planned are:
- The AWID International Forum, Guadalajara, Mexico, October 3-6, 2002.
- The Global Congress on Community Networking, Montreal, Canada, October 7-14, 2002.
- WSIS European Regional Meeting, Bucharest, Romania, November 7-9, 2002
- The Feminist Encuentro, Costa Rica, December 2002.
- Asian Social Forum, Hyderabad, India, January 10, 2003
- WSIS Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting, Tokyo, Japan, January 12-14, 2003
- World Social Forum, Porto, Late Jan/early Feb. 2003
- UN/Commission on the Status of Women (UN/CSW), New York, March 4-15, 2003 (Gender and ICTs is a major theme at the CSW in 2003)
- WSIS PrepCom II, Geneva, Switzerland, March 26-April 4, 2003
- International Women's Summit and World YWCA World Council, Brisbane, Australia, July 6-10, 2003
- WSIS PrepCom III, Geneva, Switzerland, September 2003
- Global Communities Congress, Rockhampton, Australia, October 2003

LATE BREAKING NEWS!
Alternative Civil Society Statement
In response to a suddenly-called governmental special session on WSIS content and themes in Geneva September 16-18, 2002, a Civil Society Statement containing the comments and contributions of representatives from organizations grouped into sub-committees, caucuses and working groups was quickly prepared and presented to the delegates. The Statement was a response to the report presented by the Chairman of Sub-Committee 2 (Content and Themes) at PrepCom 1 on the "Principles guiding the preparatory work and the WSIS" and proposed "Themes for the WSIS".

Within the Civil Society Statement is a section entitled Gender Perspectives which reads:

"In accordance with the Millennium Declaration, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action and other instruments adopted by the UN, the WSIS must address gender perspectives within the information and communication society in all aspects of the agenda."

To see the full Civil Society Statement, go to:
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/

To contact the multi-sectoral WSIS-Gender Caucus, facilitated by Gillian Marcelle, write to: .
Information on membership and programme of action can be found at:
.

To become part of the fledgling NGO Gender Issues Strategy, or to receive a more complete calendar of dates and places of international and regional meetings where gender and WSIS will be discussed, write to IWTC at:

IWTC Women's GlobalNet is a production of:

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