By Kabita Bahing
UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) co-organized the Asia Pacific Regional Civil Society Organizations Forum on the priority theme of the 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) over 6 and 7 February 2023 in Bangkok. Civil society groups working on different issues across Asia and Pacific regions came together to advocate for the rights of women and girls, LGBTIQA+, disability and other marginalized groups. The platform was set to bring grassroot’s major concerns and reservations, and strategize for regional and global interventions at CSW67.
Following the Civil Society Forum, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific regions, co-organized a two day regional consultation on the priority theme for CSW67 with the main objective; to gather the recommendations from states delegates, civil society groups and other stakeholders between 8 and 9 February 2023.
Some of the issues presented by civil society representatives during the Civil Society Forum, include:
- The gender gap in access, affordability and inclusion around innovation and digital transformation.
- The multi-layer impacts of tech and innovation on the environment, marginalized and indigenous communities from an intersectional lens.
- Rights to privacy, surveillance and data conversation from a community empowering standpoint; to enhance people’s integrity and autonomy, by stressing a rights based.
- The questions around accountability and transparency of big tech companies towards people, in terms of their rights, establishing justice of the users are important concerns by ensuring people’ rights to privacy, data security, free from violence and addressing reports of violence, sharing benefits to consumers etc .
- Despite the increase in rates of online gender based violence (GBV), structural understanding of how it targets and affects women’s and girls’ access to the internet is limited. Gendered perceptions and practices in online spaces, legislative efforts addressing online GBV are tokenistic laws and even limit wider online participation and encourage women’s and girls’ self-censorship. The internet and tech platforms are deeply rooted in patriarchy and misogyny. And gendered practices contribute to fostering online gender based violence. A special attention should be given to GBV when talking about the digitation and transformation securing safer digital and internet spaces
- Comprehensive sexuality education cannot be ignored. It’s a must to ensure access to accurate information on sexual and reproductive health. To uphold people’s autonomy, agency, as well as, to ensure access to sexual and reproductive rights and pleasure.
- Address the gaps in conversations regarding comprehensive sexuality education; by upholding digital security, and protection for learners, ensuring free speech and access to resources, and secure ethical aspects of comprehensive sexuality education.
- The conversation should shift from tech negatively impacting women, to women positively impacting tech.
- Digital workspaces are rarely discussed and there are valid concerns around addressing multiple aspects of labour movements, visibilize labour, gender gap in digital work spaces along with the absence of human rights.
- Accessibility for people with disabilities is one of the major concerns, especially when discussing digital innovation, transformation and rights of people online.
- Infrastructure beyond cables and wires, as well as the need to address language accessibility, connectivity to the communities, and other interlinkages between digital and climate justice. Digital gender divide and inequitable access to digital spaces for women and girls, people in rural areas and people with disabilities, limited language accessibility left out in accessing internet and opportunities and even from the policy making level on digital rights which is facilitated by the lack of affordability of internet and infrastructures, digital literacy and skills of those communities.
Likewise artificial intelligence and machine learning and their role to foster digital gender divide is another threat that is driven by the binary and gender stereotypical norms, internalized biases and assumptions. That further curbs the free and non-moderation of choice, autonomous online presence and consumption of internet contents
- Internet shut down is increasing everywhere, resulting in deprivation of digital access, and curtailing rights to internet freedom and expression mostly the political opinions
- Online based gendered violence targeted to women and girls and other gender, caste, religious and ethnic communities is increasing.
- Laws and policies of both government and tech companies are regressive and contribute to curbing people’s rights to privacy, freedom of expression, access to online spaces because of criminalization, and other harmful social norms. These laws are gendered too.
- Development should be people-centered, yet in the digital design making spaces, the rights of people are curbed, and their bodily autonomy and agency are dismissed.
- Consent and rights of people have never been considered in the bigger conversation around the data. Tech companies in addition to governments are not accountable towards people, and neither their digital presence and safety are taken into consideration.
- Tech and innovation and environmental justice should go hand in hand. The sustainability of our environments, natural resources and ecosystems should not be compromised. However, big tech companies should be mindful of their impacts on the environment, communities and nature.
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is heavily masculinized due to the deeply rooted patriarchy and socio-cultural and economical aspect.
- Emerging trends including digital workspace highlights the replication of offline gendered practices, marketplace and opportunities along with danger of different human rights getting ignored in online space as well.
- Comprehensive sexuality education and reproductive health and rights are more prone to scrutiny as obscenity, harmful contents and practices with the regressive nature of government social structure, therefore ensuring secure, safe and compulsory digital space for education by increasing internet accessibility and availability and dismantling narrow understanding of CSE.
CSW67 Regional Consultation
- The regional consultation was held on the 8-9 Feb at ESCAP where delegates from Asia and Pacific regions, with the participation of civil society organization representatives, and activists. The session was divided into 4 major themes. The panel discussions were conducted where different civil society and government interventions were shared around digital innovation and its issues which was followed by recommendation from the participant of CSO forum.
The four day event was fruitful in terms of learning, meeting new networks and knowing different emerging issues. Getting to know the CSW process, its importance and role of the civil society organization and groups was one of the achievements. Along with that, I was able understand the skills and strategies of intervention in such spaces was insightful. I observed there are many similarities as well as country, context specific uniqueness in the issues and concerns that was coming from everyone. It helped me to understand the notion of priorities within Asia and Pacific. I was also happy to put forward the concerns from my end and I believe that helped to enrich the conversation. Besides that I was happy to meet other like minded communities and felt a sense of support and togetherness.
Conclusion and personal observations:
Both events were massive and insightful in multiple ways. They were helpful for broadening the understanding of the issues, building strategies within UN convenings, as well as, extending and building networks. However, few of the things I observed in these spaces which I found interesting and could be better considered in future events.
In my experience, I found some of the discussions were coming from privilege positions and corporate angles, more than from marginalized groups. I was not able to agree and relate fully. I found conversation to be very binary in the beginning, however, it was well unpacked later with the development of the discussion. The CSO Forum could have focused more on strategizing intervention like language framing so that we can make our agendas heard etc. to make the intervention during regional consultation more effective. The need was felt also because the government delegates and their understanding were contradictory in many of the things the CSO Forum was prioritizing. The government delegates were sharing the regressive thoughts especially in regards to online freedom of expression, online presence, online harassment and surveillance. In that context, the CSO Forum could have been used more strategically; to map the potential narratives that government delegates and others bring in their interventions so we can determine our interventions catering and highlighting communities’ concerns. The entire conversation was just limited to the assumption that everyone loves the internet and will benefit from it,however, the conversation could not cater to the people who choose not to be in the digital space/ internet platform but will be impacted.