WACC and partner organizations are aiming to equip gender justice advocates to advance women’s digital communication rights with an event during the NGO CSW Forum 68 in New York on 11–24 March.

The Forum is a civil society gathering held in parallel to the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a United Nations body that promotes the rights and empowerment of women and global gender equality.

The event “Digital Communication Rights: Empowering women for the digital age” on 12 March at 10am – 12pm Eastern Standard Time will feature best practices from WACC partner organizations, the launch of core resources on gender and communication justice, and planning for advocacy at key global policy fora in 2024 and 2025.

• Best practices to create an inclusive, misogyny-free digital sphere

Brenda Namata from the Uganda Media Women’s Association will speak about the WACC partner’s monitoring of gender-based hate speech on social media, while Shahrezad Samiuddin of the Uks Research Centre will present a WACC-supported initiative that is fostering a non-sexist, respectful online culture in Urdu, Punjabi, and other regional languages in Pakistan.

• Research on gender-just media and communications

The event will launch The Handbook on Gender, Communication and Women’s Human Rights, with input from co-editor Aimée Vega-Montiel and contributors Claudia Padovani, Janine Moolman, Christy Alves Nascimento, Maria Edström, and WACC Gender and Communication Program Manager Sarah Macharia. The report Gender Equality in Media Development also will be presented.

• Agenda-setting towards the Summit of the Future and WSIS +20

The event will conclude with planning for advocacy by members of civil society, academia, and the media in two global policy-making spaces: the Summit of the Future in September 2024 and the 20th anniversary of the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS +20) in 2025.

Jenny Sulfath from the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), a WACC partner in India, will talk about her organization’s work to bridge the digital gender gap and improve women’s digital literacy.

WACC is co-organizing “Digital Communication Rights: Empowering women for the digital age” with the Global Alliance on Gender and Media (GAMAG) and the UNESCO UniTWIN Network on Gender, Media, and ICTs.

Both in-person and virtual participation are possible. Online participants are asked to register in advance.

Catalysts for change

The CSW68 side event “Catalysts for Change: Breaking down gender stereotypes in media and advertising” on 11 March will feature Macharia, who is also global coordinator of WACC’s Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP).

At the event, organized by the Council of Europe and the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein to the United Nations, Macharia will explore progress towards gender equality since the first GMMP in 1995 and the role of regulation of media in countering sexist attitudes.