July
12 2005
GENDER
AND ICT ISSUES AT WOMEN'S WORLD CONGRESS, EWHA UNIVERSITY, SEOUL,
KOREA JUNE 19-24
By
Mavic Cabrera-Balleza
Gender
and ICT advocates from all world regions joined some 2,000 other
women activists at the Women's Worlds Congress 2005, -the 9TH
International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women-, held at
Ewha University in Seoul, Korea, June 19-24. The congress was
a cooperative effort between 5 of Korea's universities for women,
Sogang University, Yonsei University, Sookmyung Women's University,
the Korean Women's Development Institute and Ewha University.
Sixteen panel discussions and workshops on gender and the new
information and communication technologies (ICT) were organized
by the Asia-Pacific Women's Information Network Centre (APWINC).
The
gender and ICT workshops and discussions covered a broad range
of topics including internet governance, gender and ICT statistics,
indicators and policies, e-governance and the Digital Solidarity
Fund along with other financing mechanisms in the Information
Society,.
Although
there were more discussion spaces on gender and ICT issues in
this Women's Worlds Congress than in previous years, women's
media advocates were disappointed that there were no gender
and ICT issues integrated into presentations in the morning
plenaries particularly the one that examined the issue of globalization
and its impact on women. The morning plenaries under the theme
“Embracing the Earth, East-West/North-South” drew
by far the largest audiences.
Gender
and ICT advocates met separately for 2 days at Sookmyung Women's
University to discuss gender and ICT issues at the World Summit
for the Information Society (WSIS 2005). The meeting produced
the Seoul-Gyeonggi Declaration which outlines gender issues
and recommendations in relation to Internet governance and financing
mechanisms, the two themes of WSIS 2005. It will be presented
at the Third Preparatory Committee Meeting of WSIS, Geneva,
September 19-30, 2005.
*****************
UPCOMING EVENTS (NGO and UN) from the CONGO* e-Update for July
11, 2005:
July
18-21 2005: International Conference on Conflict Prevention,
United Nations, New York
July
19-21 2005: WFUNA Seminar on the Human Rights Commission, Geneva
July
21-22 2005: Social Forum
UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights, Geneva
August
3-5 2005: Youth Assembly at the United Nations
“Young
People Making a Difference”, United Nations, New York
September
7-9 2005: DPI/NGO Conference , New York
September
19-30 2005: World Summit on the Information Society, PrepCom-3
Geneva
September
14-16 2005: Millennium Summit Review, UN General Assembly High
Level Segment, New York
See
http://www.ngocongo.org/ngomeet for an updated calendar of relevant
events.
About
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*Conference
of NGOs in Consultative Relations with the United Nations (CONGO).
Post: CP 50, 1211 Genéve 20, Suisse. Tel: +41 22 301
1000. Fax: +41 22 301 2000. Web: http://www.ngocongo.org
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