APC’s Women’s Rights and Communications and Information Policy Programmes work to explore and promote a queer and feminist analysis of the practice and governance of internet technology. Since 2008, the EROTICS project has looked particularly at sexual rights movements’ engagement with the internet across the globe, as well as constructions and expressions of non-heteronormative sexualities online. The 2011 EROTICS research findings from India, Lebanon, Brazil, the United States and South Africa showed a variety of emerging issues related to women’s agency and autonomy online versus violations of privacy, harassment and threats, censorship and regulation, oppressive government policies, and male-dominated tech spaces. In 2013, we followed up with a global monitoring survey that examined threats and strategies employed by sexual rights activists to organise and promote their work online.
The fast-paced progression of the internet as a social and technical space places urgency on the development of feminist discourse and strategy in response to online misogyny and sexism. At the same time, discourse on internet rights and freedoms is growing, with increased focused on privacy, security and freedom of expression. Yet there has been little focus on issues of gender and sexuality in internet rights movements, nor adequate strategising about how to promote and protect sexual rights in internet rights strategies and discourse.
We therefore invite you to join our Global Meeting on Gender, Sexuality and the Internet to explore and develop our collective understanding of what a feminist internet looks like. The meeting will be held in Malaysia between 12 and 17 April and brings together academics, activists and policy specialists from local, regional and international organisations and networks.
Goals
- Articulate, deepen and clarify thinking and analysis around contentious issues of gender, sexuality and the internet including questions around “harmful content”, pornography, “hate speech”, gender-based violence and sexual rights.
- Develop a set of evolving Feminist Principles of the Internet.
- Build a network of feminist and queer activists, academics, internet rights experts and techies to identify collaborative strategies across movements.
- Build capacity on engaging with human rights mechanisms and UN instruments to advance sexual rights and women’s human rights in relation to the internet.
Follow the dialogue online using the hashtag #imagineafeministinternet
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Meeting Agendas
Meeting Agenda Summary
Download the Agenda Summary here
FLOW: Ending Violence Against Women
Download the Agenda here
Sexual Rights Project (12 April 2014)
On April 12th we will hold an introductory meeting to discuss participants work on gender, sexuality and the internet, share information about a new project, and prepare for the 3-day dialogue from April 13th – 15th which aims to develop a set of evolving Feminist Principles of the Internet. On the 12th our agenda will be:
0900-1030: Introductions, welcome and meeting orientation
1030-1100: Break
1100-1300: Laying out our work: strategic assessment and critique of current trends
1300-1400: Lunch break
1400-1530: Thematic discussion on gender, sexuality and the internet issues
1600-1630: APC’s sexual rights work and the Gender, Sexuality and the Internet meeting
1630-1700: Wrap up and summary
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Directions to the venue
Find directions here.
Logistic advisory
Download the logisic advisory here
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Resources
Sexual Rights Activism & the Internet: Infographic
EROTICS Exploratory from Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa & USA
Survey on sexual activism, morality, and the internet
World Wide Web of Desire: Content regulation on the internet
Human rights and the internet: A review of perceptions in human rights organisations
Global Information Society Watch 2013: Women’s rights, gender and ICTs
APC Internet rights are human rights training curriculum
Global Information Society Watch Special Edition: Communication rights ten years after WSIS