APC’s Women’s Rights Programme convened a meeting on feminism, sexuality, technology and violence at Rutgers University Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights in the United States in November. The three-day meeting ranged from setting out definitions to practical concerns and future collaboration. The meeting grew out of the Exploratory Research Online (EROTICS) undertaken in 2008 with research projects in five countries. Phase 2 of this project included a survey of sexual rights activists about their online experiences. Many were impressed to hear that 98% of sexuality rights activists who completed the survey said that the internet was critical to their work. However, over half reported receiving threats online and 27% said that they had stopped some of their work online in response. This demonstrates a truly chilling effect and the need for sexuality rights activists to understand how to protect themselves and their organizations online. This is one reason why APC arranged this meeting.
Read the full article in GenderIT.org .