[WSIS CS-Plenary] New version of the draft statement for Sub-Committee B today

[maseger at t-online.de]

Thank you, Bertrand, Nnenna, Chantal...and...&...
For further work on details, I like to point to "gender language", used
already in WSIS, Phase I, in our "Shaping Information Societies for
Human Needs", especially in the two paragraphs (I write down here again,
so you need not to look out for them):

2.1.3 Gender Justice
Equitible, open and inclusive information and communication societies
must be based on gender justice and be particularly guided by the
interpretation of  principles of gender equality, non-discrimination and
women's empowerment as contained in the Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action (Fourth World Conference on Women) and the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Actions must demonstrate not only a strong commitment but also a high
level consciousness to an intersectional approach to redressing
discrimination resulting from unequal power relations at all levels of
society. Proactive policies and programmes across all sectors must be
developed for women as active and primary agents of change in owning,
designing, using and adapting ICT, To empower girls and women throughout
their life cyle, as shapers and leaders of society, gender repsonsive
educational programmes and appropriate learning environments need to be
promoted. Gender analysis and the development of both quantitative and
qualitative indicators in measuring gender equality through an extensive
and integrated national system of monitory and evaluation are "musts".

(May I add, - also as the representative of EURAG -, that I am
personnally in favour of the wording "women throughout their life
cycle". We have managed by strong lobbying at the Fourth World
Conference on Women, Beijing, to have in the UN documents the phrasing
"women of all ages", in order to value our (their) contributions to
societies and their rights throughout the life cycle as a holistic age
and gender approach.)

2.2.6 Women's Rights
In order to realise women's rights in the information and communication
societies, as spelled out in the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action (Fourth World Conference on Women),
it is crucial to acknowledge and address the differences, disparaties
and disadvantages that women expierence. This means taking into account
the ways in which women are different from men, and how these
differences translate into differential levels of access, opportunity,
participation and use of ICTs. It must be ensured that policy or legal
interventions and programmes consciously address these differences. To
ensure effective equality of women, and thereby enable women's full
ability to claim and exercise their human rights, it is necessary to
adopt a substantive equality approach in the anlysis, which informs the
content of ICT policy and programmes. This approach implies that actions
to promote women's rights must transform the unequal power relation
between women and men. Women need not only equality of opportunity, but
also equality of access to opportunies and the ability to fully
participate in availing such opportunities.
(end of quotation)

MARIANNE

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-----Original Message-----
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 12:02:07 +0200
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] New version of the draft statement for
Sub-Committee B today
From: Bertrand de La Chapelle 
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org

Dear all,   Find below the revised version of the draft. I think I
have been able to incorporate all of them and ask for forgiveness if
I have forgotten anything.