04 March 2005

Carolyn Hannan, Director
Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations, New York, USA

Dear Ms. Hannan,

We would like to bring to your attention our concern about the non-inclusion of women and media in the online discussions organized by the UN Division for the Advancement of Women in preparation for the 49^{th CSW session and the 10-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action. We feel that this does not reflect the significance that the UN DAW and the CSW have given these issues especially in the 47th session of the CSW where Women and Media and ICTs was one of the thematic issues.}

The Fourth World Conference on Women Beijing held in1995, is widely recognized as the first watershed for media and ICT policy advocacy. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action called for an “Increase in participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication.” It also called for the promotion of “a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media.”

In the past 10 years, issues of communications and media have become a critical cross cutting development issue and a vital tool for instrument to the advancement and empowerment of women. The provisions on women and media in Section J have provided the impetus that women and gender advocates have used in many national, regional, and international processes to strengthen and expand advocacy for women’s empowerment through media and communications.

Moreover, it is also media and ICTs that we use as primary tools to inform people across the world about the Beijing Platform for Action with a view to achieving the strategic objectives in all of the other critical areas of concern.

At the 47th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in 2003, a set of agreed conclusions were adopted on the participation and access of women to media, to information and communication technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women1. The agreed conclusions addressed women’s equal access to ICT-based economies activities and employment. They put forward recommendations in areas of policy development and regulatory aspects, access, education, work and employment, partnerships, participation and cooperation, research, data collection and good practices, and resources. These conclusions considered ICT as a tool for the promotion of gender equality.

The absence of women and media issues as reflected in the Section J in the current review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action at this session of the CSW especially in the lead up to the upcoming MDGs+5 and the WSIS Stage 2 is of further concern. This is crucial especially when the five-year review of the implementation of the BPFA, recognized that ICTs created new opportunities for women and contributed to knowledge-sharing, network and electronic commerce activities. Member states concurred that “there was a need to make women's access to the means of dissemination a priority public interest” and acknowledged that poverty, lack of access and opportunities and language barriers prevented women from using ICTs and the internet.

In same year, the Millennium Declaration reconfirmed the urgency of ensuring the benefits of new technologies, especially of ICTs stating that “all Member States were committed to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable, as well as ensuring that the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication technologies were available to all”*

Most recently, the World Summit on the Information Society in December 2003, 175 governments endorsed the WSIS Declaration of Principles and Action Plan that reflect a commitment to gender equality.

We believe that it is critical to keep women, media, and ICT issues on the agenda of the Beijing + 10 review to avoid the undermining of the achievements and the continuing efforts of women’s media and ICT activists, advocates and practitioners to contribute to the dialogue during the 49th CSW session.

We would like to call on your good office to underscore the role of media and ICTs in all of the parallel sessions that you are organizing and in all the official interventions that you will be making in during the 49th CSW session.

Should you find any opportunity for a member of the “women, media and ICT caucus” to speak in any of your sessions, we will be more than happy to send our representatives and participate in the discussions.

Lastly, we would be most willing to discuss these issues with you should you find a need to meet face-to-face.

Thank you very much.

AMARC (World Association of Community Broadcasters) -Women’s International Network

Association for Progressive Communications - Women’s Networking Support Programme

Asia Pacific Women’s Watch

Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE)