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<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt">12 November 2015, 12:30 till 13:15</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt">Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in João
Pessoa, Brazil, in workshop room 3.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt"><br>
</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt">About this issue: </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt">How does the politics of sex and sexual rights
activism take place online? How are generally accepted sexual
identities, as well as marginalised sexualities, expressed,
regulated and moralised on the internet? And how does this
relate to the threats of surveillance, censorship and online
violence? These are some of the questions that this year's
edition of the "Global Information Society Watch report
(GISWatch 2015, available at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.giswatch.org/2015-sexual-rights-and-internet">http://www.giswatch.org/2015-sexual-rights-and-internet</a>) aims
to respond to. With sexual rights and the internet as the main
theme, the issues addressed by the country reports range from
the challenges and possibilities that the internet offers
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LBGTI)
communities to the active role of religious, cultural and
patriarchal establishments in suppressing sexual rights,
including same-sex marriage, to the rights of sex workers,
violence against women online, and sex education in schools.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt"><br>
</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt">What is GISWatch? GISWatch is collaborative
community committed to building an open, inclusive and
sustainable information society. The GISWatch reports are a
series of yearly reports covering the state of the information
society from the perspectives of civil society, but GISWatch
is not only a publication, it is a process. The long-term goal
of the project is to build policy analysis skills and "habits"
into the work of civil society organisations that work in the
areas of ICT for development, democracy and social justice.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt"><br>
</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt">Why a Sexual rights and the internet edition?
The timing of this publication is critical: many across the
globe are denied their sexual rights, some facing direct
persecution for their sexuality (in several countries,
homosexuality is a crime). While these reports seem to
indicate that the internet does help in the expression and
defence of sexual rights, they also show that in some contexts
this potential is under threat – whether through the active
use of the internet by conservative and reactionary groups, or
through threats of harassment and violence. The reports
suggest that a radical revisiting of policy, legislation and
practice is needed in many contexts to ensure that the
possibilities of the internet for guaranteeing sexual rights
are realised all over the world. The eight thematic reports
introduce the theme from different perspectives, including the
global policy landscape for sexual rights and the internet,
the privatisation of spaces for free expression and
engagement, the need to create a feminist internet, how to
think about children and their vulnerabilities online, and
consent and pornography online. These thematic reports frame
the 57 country reports that follow. Each country report
includes a list of action steps for future advocacy.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt"><br>
</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt">Evolving in line with the challenges and
tensions of internet rights The increased attention to and
impact of the GISWatch publications is a milestone in a
process that started in 2007, when we published our first
report focusing on Participation. After that, we published
reports addressing the themes of Access to Infrastructure:,
"Access to Online Information and Knowledge", "ICTs and
Environmental Sustainability":, "Internet Rights and
Democratisation", "The Internet and Corruption":,
"Communications Rights Ten Years after WSIS":, "Women's
Rights, Gender and ICTs":, and "Internet rights that went
wrong in Turkey". Las year's report was on surveillance.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt"><br>
</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt">Can it be followed remotely? You can follow it
through the #IGF2015 and #GISWatch2015 hashtags. After the
launch, we will "unlock" the report and you will be able to
download it from "here"</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt"><br>
</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="
font-size:10pt">Meanwhile, follow @APC_News and #GISWatch2015
for teasers and insights on the process, and stay tuned!</span></font></div>
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font-size:10pt"><br>
</span></font></div>
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<b style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:14px; margin: 0 0 0 0;padding:0 0 0 0;">Ariel
Barbosa</b>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px; margin: 3px 0 10px 0;padding: 0 0 0 0;">Director
de Proyectos de Tecnología</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px; margin: 3px 0 0 0;padding: 0 0 0 0;">Tel:
57-1 232 4246 ext. 4301 | 57-315 258 5596 </p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px; margin: 3px 0 0 0;padding: 0 0 0 0;"> <span
style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px; margin: 10px 0 0 0;padding: 0 0 0 0;">Diagonal
40A (Antigua Av. 39) No. 14-75 </span>Bogotá, Colombia</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px; margin: 3px 0 0 0;padding: 0 0 0 0;"><a
href="mailto:ariel@colnodo.apc.org"><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ariel@colnodo.apc.org">ariel@colnodo.apc.org</a></a>
| Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/colnodo">@colnodo</a></p>
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font-size:12px; margin: 3px 0 0 0;padding: 0 0 0 0;"><a
href="http://www.colnodo.apc.org"><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.colnodo.apc.org">www.colnodo.apc.org</a></a>
- Uso Estratégico de Internet para el Desarrollo</p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px; margin: 3px 0 0 0;padding: 0 0 0 0;">Miembro
de la Asociación para el Progreso de las Comunicaciones
-APC- <a href="http://www.apc.org">www.apc.org</a></p>
<p style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:12px; margin: 3px 0 0 0;padding: 0 0 0 0;">PGP:
0xE5C5E92D | Fingerprint: F15F 75A5 F086 99C4 0BE3 E9F8
E6E7 15CF E5C5 E92D</p>
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