IWTC WOMEN'S GLOBALNET
Activities and Initiatives of Women Worldwide

Final onsite report from the UN CSW 47th Session
by Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Isis International-Manilla
14 March 2003

GENDER, MEDIA AND ICTS

Following a week of intense debates and negotiations, the 47th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women adopted today the Agreed Conclusions on the theme "participation and access of women to the media, and information and communication technologies and their impact
on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of
women."
The last few points that the delegates deliberated on included:
- the sexual exploitation of women through the traditional media and through new technologies;
- the inclusion of gender perspectives and gender-specific measurable targets in all programmes and projects on ICT for development;
- the removal of ICT-related infrastructural barriers that disproportionately affect women and girls;
- the need to support research in all aspects of the impact of the media and ICT on women and girls;
- the provision of adequate and appropriate resources for innovative, affordable, accessible, and sustainable ICDT programmes, projects, and products that support gender equality and gender mainstreaming;
- the allocation of resources to programmes and projects that aim at increasing women‚s participation in and equal access to the information society; and
- the enhancement of international cooperation to reduce the digital and information divide.
The delegates added a new paragraph that calls for the strengthening of the capacity of national machineries to take a lead advocacy role on, media, ICT, and gender issues.

The phrase "as appropriate" that accompanied a number of provisions is no longer in the final document. The phrase became ubiquitous during the five-day negotiations because the U.S. delegate insisted on inserting it in all paragraphs that demanded resource allocation. During the final reading, the motion from the Moroccan delegate ˆrepresenting the Group of 77- to reach agreement on resource allocation and facilitation ofinternational cooperation because "they are appropriate" elicited laughter from the delegates.

Disappointingly, there was no substantive discussion on intellectual property rights, open source technology, and network security.
Despite this, the Greek delegate, -representing the European Union- referred to the Agreed Conclusions on ICT and media as a "win-win document that we can build on [when we take part in the] World Summit and Information Society (WSIS)."