AW: [WSIS CS-Plenary] [governance] Post mortem and next steps on IG

Tue Oct 4 01:43:23 BST 2005

Thanks Rik for clarifying.  OF course I never meant to shout but am determined to ascertain that gender sensitivity is there.  I agree that it should appear most appropriate and I have certainly read this very carefully and was at the session when the Chair read his Food for Thought.  I am all for substance and if we do not make WSIS principles gender sensitive, then it remains a paradigm of the haves and not inclusive of the have-nots who are at present women..  This is precisely why I included it in the paragraph where it recognizes the scope and the  necessity for IG to be people-centered, inclusive, development oriented and non discriminatory, and certainly should be "gender sensitive.". 

When you say that a gender perspective (I repeat this means the different impact on which one sex is benefiting and the other being disadvantaged or excluded in considering good or bad governance..

When you said that it should be in one good paragraph than in 100 vague paras, I do agree it should be where it is clearly needed but I do not agree that it should be limited because it should also be mainstreamed in all policies of formulation and  commitments to implementation, for example in 50a. If society were really an even playing level field, then there is no valid reason to call for gender equality.  But we are very far from it.  You will probabvly argue with me that women are in great numbers ICT involved - but where are they situated?  Studies have shown they are in back offices, processing data to be transferred, and other operations using ICT for e-business in SMEs but how many are they that are eqjuivalent to Bill Gates, Turner or other inventors and decision-makers at the top where they can determine and control media, systems, programme designs?

There are many places were we could have placed a gender perspective. By the way, this chapter is absolutely gender -blind.  

In your very examploe of "child help lines" this is also gender blind because the ones most affected are the girl children who are the majority without support, resources, education or simply connected to traditional forms of communication and information as they are discriminated against from the time they are born (or even unborn).  

Problems of inequality of women to men have emanated precisely from the lacuna in looking at the differential impact of ICTs - from the least common denominator - human rights.

We need the synergy of women and men.  One clear illustration are the plethora of software on war games, violent sports or sports that are almost exclusive for men,  pornography, etc. Why - because producers are in the majority men. Women are so far consumers only.  

Men and boys have a shared responsibility in changing socital attitudes and behaviour.  It is difficult to promote this without accompanying training in gender-sensitivity and awareness raising.  One important one is in these forms of international standards and guidelines.

In solidarity and equality with you,
Conchitra      
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rik Panganiban 
  To: plenary at wsis-cs.org 
  Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 3:04 PM
  Subject: Re: AW: [WSIS CS-Plenary] [governance] Post mortem and next steps on IG

  Conchita,

  Just a quick process note to you and all.  On e-mail exchanges, all capital letters is usually interpreted as SOMEONE SHOUTING AT YOU.  I presume you don't intend this, but that is how it is usually read.

  You know I share your concerns about gender inclusion, although we might argue about where that should be best included in the document.  Do not forget that the Internet Governance chapter is only one chapter of the entire "Operational Document" that is to be approved by governments in Tunis.  The critical question is where should gender language be included in the document to have the most impact?

  I am not one of those people who think that just inserting "gender inclusion," "youth empowerment" or "multi-stakeholder" in every paragraph necessarily gains us anything substantial.  One good paragraph that is well supported can do more good than 100 vague paras.  Witness the work of the NGO on that one reference to "child help lines" in one para only.

  Respectfully,

  Rik Panganiban
  CONGO

  On Oct 2, 2005, at 2:49 PM, conchita.poncini at bluewin.ch wrote:

    [Please note that by using 'REPLY', your response goes to the entire list. Kindly use individual addresses for responses intended for specific people]

    Click http://wsis.funredes.org/plenary/ to access automatic translation of this message!
    _______________________________________

    DEAR ALL,

    YES, EVERYTHING IS UNBRACKETED BUT THERE IS ONE FUNDAMENTAL NOTION THAT IS
    MISSING IN THE TEXT WHICH IS "GENDER SENSITIVE".  THIS OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN
    INSERTED AT LEAST ONCE UNDER NEW PARA. 41 OF CHAPTER 1, PREAMBULAR PARA.
    41 WITHIN THE ENUMERATION "PEOPLE-CENTERED, INCLUSIVE (INSERT - GENDER SENSITIVE)
    DEVELOPMENT ORIENTED AND NON-DISCRIMINATORY INFORMATION SOCIETY.  THIS IS
    PARTICULARLY RELEVANT IN ICTs AND TRADITIONAL MEANS OF COMMUNICATION FOR
    THE FOLLOWING REASONS:. 

    Justification:  It is true that women should attain an equal level field
    with men in ordered to achieve "power", but this is more the ideal that will
    probably not be attained in our present generation.  But "gender sensitive"
    means that governance has to be a shared responsibility to capture those
    information and language and programmes from the point of view of how they
    impact on men and how they impact on women.  Women are of course currently
    disadvantaged and unable because the majority of producers anhd users are
    still in the majority men and on the other hand women are the subject of
    cultural relativism and violence against women emanates from this - the projection
    of women's images and men's images are not the same but rather harmful to
    women,considered as objects rather than partner-sharing with half of the
    population; media and other forms of dissemination of information is still
    dominated by men.  So, when we insert "gender sensitive", it simèply means
    to take into account these asseymetries that tip in favour of men than women.
     I could make a whole thesis here of what gender sensitivity is all about
    but I am sure you are all on the same track.
     GOALS 
    AFTER THE FINAL SESSION , I WENT DIRECTLY TO AMBASSADOR KHAN TO EXPLAIN THAT
    THIS NOTION IS SPELLED OUT IN THE FOLLOWING CONFERENCES AND INTERNATIONAL
    STANDARDS: WSIS I GENEVA DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES (PARA )AND THE SEPTEMBER
    GLOBAL  SUMMIT 2005 ON FOLLOW UP TO THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS OUTCOME
    DOCUMENT (PARA 12) COMMITS TO GENDER EQUALITY AND GENDER MAINSTREAMING AND
    SPECIFICALLY (PARA 58(d) ON EQUAL ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY.  OTHER COMMITMENTS
    ARE FOUND IN ECOSOC (RESOLUTION L2 TO MAINSTREAM GENDER AND INTEGRATE WOMEN'S
    RIGHTS IN ALL THE UN SYSTEM (1997)AND IN 2002 TO DISCUSS FOLLOW UP ON GM,THE
    1995 FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN IN BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION AND
    THE DECISION 22 OF THE GENERAL ASSEMLY IN 2000 AND COMMISSION ON THE STATUS
    OF WOMEN 2005 REAFFIRM COMMITMENT TO BEIJING, GA 22 AND CEDAW (CONVENTION
    ON TH ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION, ADOPTED IN 1979) AND THE
    OTHER WORLD CONFERENCES ON POPULATION DEVELOPMENT, COPENHAGEN SOCIAL SUMMKIT,
    AGENDA 21 OF RIO FOLLOWED BY JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT ON ENVIRONMENTS, ETC.  

    AMBASSADOR KHAN REASSURED ME THAT HE WILL INSERT THIS PHRASE (MAYBE IN HIS
    FOOD FOR THOUGHT PAPER)    

    IF WE DO NOT INCLUDE THIS NOTION IN INTERNET GOVERNANCE WE CAN EXPECT AN
    EVEN HARDER STRUGLE AND FAILURE IN SUBSEQUENT MONITOIRING OF FOLLOW-UP AND
    IMPLEMENTATION BECAUSE IT IS ONLY WHEN THERE IS SUCH WRITTEN COMMITMENTS
    TO ICT COULD WE ADVOCATE. 

    I URGE ALL CAUCUSES TO INCLUDE THIS IN ALL THEIR INTERVENTIONS - GENDER IS
    ABOUT WOMEN AND MEN AND CERTAINLY MEN HAVE A DETERMINING ROLE IN THIS QUEST.

    YOURS IN SOLIDARITY,

    CONCHITA PONCINI 
    International Federation of University Women

  ===============================================

  RIK PANGANIBAN       Communications Coordinator

  Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) 

  web: http://www.ngocongo.org

  email: rik.panganiban at ngocongo.org

  mobile: (+1) 917-710-5524 

  * Information on the WSIS at http://www.ngocongo.org/wsis

  * Information on Millennium+5 at http://www.ngocongo.org/mdg

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