The Digital World 2012 – Knowledge to Prosperity conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh 6-8 December was an amazing mashup of private sector, government and civil society united in their interest in ICT for development. As coordinator of APC’s End violence: Women’s rights and safety online project, Jan Moolman presented Take Back the Tech! in a session spotlighting tech-related violence against women.

At a recent civil society workshop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, co-organised by APC with Global Partners, NUPEF Institute and the Fundação Getulio Vargas, groups from the region looked beyond the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai (WCIT) and outlined the following positive principles for constructive multi-stakeholder dialogue.

In an Open Letter put out during the World Conference on International Telecommunications, civil society groups call on the the ITU’s Secretary General and the conference Chairman to address three immediate and pressing matters: the lack of any official standing to the public comments by civil society; the lack of access to and transparency of working groups, particularly the working groups of Committee 5 (the review committee); and the absence of mechanisms to encourage independent civil society participation.

The recently launched online mapping platform developed by the Association for Progressive Communications in partnership with APC member AZUR Developpement under the Africatti project, will contribute to holding the Congo government accountable on domestic violence in a country where serious incidents of gender based violence and human rights violations take place.

Do you remember the culture jamming actions against official websites in Uganda last August? Anonymous activists managed to modify content on presidential and governmental websites in a way that showed the government as apologizing to the Ugandan LGBT community for repeated persecution of gays and lesbians. Just a few months later, Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill is there again and it could be passed into law imminently.

Now in its 34th year, the IT Personality of the Year recognises a person who has made an outstanding impact on the South African ICT industry and a significant contribution to the ICT profession. Among this year’s five finalists (out of 10 nominees) was APC Executive director, Anriette Esterhuysen.

At 10:26 UTC on November 29th, Syria’s international internet connectivity was shut down. APC strongly condemns this shut down, which threatens the safety and security of the Syrian people, and clearly violates international human rights law.

This campaign launched by APC member Bytes for All from Pakistan is a call for larger human rights movement in the country and citizens to fight the ongoing censorship as it will further take its toll on already compromised civil liberties in the country. All individuals are invited to join the movement and protest by sharing the campaign visuals over the internet.

This year’s Internet Governance Forum came to a close in Baku, Azerbaijan on 9 November. GenderIT.org contributor Sonia Randhawa spoke to three women about their experiences at the IGF, and whether any progress is being made in terms of the representation of women, and the prominence of women’s rights and gender as cross-cutting issues for internet governance.