Dear everyone,
Below is the statement of the NGO Gender Strategies Working Group which was
presented by Chat Garcia Ramilo of APC-WNSP at yesterday's official plenary.
Incidentally, as Chat was reading the statement, Magaly Pazello of DAWN and I
entered the plenary hall from the front side and all of the government
delegates were staring at us and tried to read what was printed on our t-
shirts. We didn't plan it but it looked fantantastically 'choreographed'--while
Chat was drawing attention to paragraphe 11 A and mentioning the t-shirt
campaign, Magaly and I walked down the hall--it was a huge hall by the way--and
kind of made quarter turns.:)
The deliberations for today will focus on paras 12-46 of the draft declaration
and then it will move on to the Plan of Action tomorrow. If anyone wants to
make contributions, you may send them to this list and we will pass them on to
the civil society content and themes sub-committee. The documents may be
accessed at:
declaration --http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/md/03/wsispc3/doc/S03-WSISPC3-
DOC-0002!!MSW-E.doc
plan of action --http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/md/03/wsispc3/doc/S03-WSISPC3-
DOC-0003!!MSW-E.doc
Cheers,
Mavic
*************
15 September 2003
Gender Equality for Plenary Block 1/11
My name is Chat Garcia Ramilo from the NGO Gender Strategies Working Group.
We call on governments to ensure gender equality concerns, which are at the
heart of addressing social injustice and equitable and sustainable development,
are fully addressed in the Declaration.
We urge states to reinstate paragraph 11A. This calls for a focus on the
gender dimensions of ICTs as essential not only in preventing the perpetuation
of existing inequalities and discrimination, but also for enhancing women's
equitable access to the benefits of ICTs. By incorporating this focus we can
ensure that ICTs become a tool for the empowerment of women and the promotion
of gender equality.
In relation to paragraphs 14 and 15, we call on governments to support the
principles of full participation, empowerment and social inclusion as
fundamental characteristics and objectives of the Information Society.
Accordingly, attention must be paid to developing an enabling environment that
empowers people, especially those living in poverty, to fight their own
exclusion.
In particular, more attention must be given to redress the effects of the
intersection of unequal power relations - in social, economic and political
spheres and in terms of gender, class, race, ethnicity and geographical
location.
We have made concrete text suggestions for the paragraphs which we hope will
feed into your negotiations.
Thank you for your attention.