At the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+10 held in Geneva on 10 June, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri called on stakeholders to invest and undertake interventions and special measures to ensure women’s digital empowerment.

During the first two WSIS events in 2003 and 2005, the international community agreed on a set of commitments that recognized information and communication technologies (ICTs) as enablers for development. But the outcome documents lacked a lead facilitating agency for gender, as well as monitoring mechanisms around cross-cutting gender issues.

With support from governments, civil society and the UN system, UN Women was successful in lobbying to rectify gaps and promote more robust and accelerated action for women’s digital inclusion and empowerment. Following a multi-stakeholder negotiation process which started in October 2013, the WSIS+10 Forum held in Geneva this week approved a final outcome document which has many important references to gender equality. It refers to taking joint and practical measures in implementing commitments, to redress discrimination, contribute to ending violence and harassment, and to promote meaningful access and full integration of women’s needs and perspectives for their full and effective participation. Moreover, UN Women was given a facilitation role in implementation and monitoring these commitments. See the full text of the WSIS+10 Outcome Documentfor more detail.
- See more at: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/6/un-women-calls-for-meaning...