WOUGNET set to launch GISWatch report from a gender perspective

WOUGNET will be launching her national report on communications surveillance in the digital age with a gender perspective as part of the National Global Society Information watch 2014. The internet is a critical way to push for the progressive realization of people’s rights – but, through communications surveillance, its potential to be used as a tool for collective democratic action is slowly being eroded.

The GISWatch report is produced by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and partners. In Uganda, WOUGNET and CIPESA are leading organizations contributing to the GISWatch report which is produced annually.

WOUGNET remains critical on the gender dynamics of communications surveillance in the digital area and believes that there should be systems to monitor and protect the public from harm, right to privacy especially women and girls so that their participation in the digital space is not hindered.

The launch of the GISWatch report will also see the dissemination of WOUGNET’s policy brief titled ” Cyber – Infrastructure – a woman’s issue too”. This policy brief reports highlights internet freedoms and cyber security issues in Uganda and examines whether women in Uganda are living on the wrong side of the digital divide.

The report that WOUGNET produced in collaboration with the Governance Class of Prof. Becky Lentz of McGill University in Canada discusses factors that constrain women’s access and use as well as participation in the internet governance discourses and furthermore looks at the policy angles – whether Government needs a more balanced society of internet freedoms or hanging on the extremes of cyber-security.

WOUGNET is launching on the 11th of December, 2014 at Kati – Kati Restaurant in Kampala and all actors have been invited. The policy brief report will be discussed and a gender panel style of discussion will be conducted.

The Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) considers the state of surveillance in 57 countries including Uganda using the 13 international principles on the application of Human rights to communications surveillance.

Read the report online or download the pdf .

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