[p2p-research] Fwd: CYBERCRIME LEGISLATIONS AND GENDER - GenderIT.org

Mon Aug 25 15:26:07 CEST 2008

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(apologies for cross-posting)
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--- --- *GENDER CENTRED: A GenderIT.org thematic bulletin* --- --- ---
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*Cybercrime legislations and gender*

I. SMALL THOUGHTS AROUND…Cybercrime legislations and gender
II. NEW ARTICLES
II. FEATURED RESOURCES
IV. JARGON
V. WHO'S WHO
VI. DID YOU KNOW…

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I. SMALL THOUGHTS AROUND…Cybercrime legislations and gender
by Flavia Fascendini

This edition of GenderIT.org examines the issue of cybercrime
legislation through a gendered perspective and its implication on
women, in collaboration with  the ICT Policy Monitor Latinamerica and
the Caribbean team of the Association for Progressive Communications.
The focus of this edition was catalysed by issues and questions raised
by our readers on the increasing pervasiveness of cybercrime
legislations in different regions, and their potential impact on
women's communication rights.

As always, we began to investigate the issue with many questions:
What is meant by "cybercrime"? In what kinds of spaces would
cybercrimes be considered as being committed? How do they
differentiate and affect ideas of the public and the private? How can
this affect women as users and developers of the internet, e-mail,
cell phones and other information and communication technologies
(ICT)? Can cybercrime
restrict the exercise of individual rights to privacy, freedom of
expression and civil liberties? Can the rhetoric of fighting
cybercrimes in effect be used to restrict the exercise of women's
communication rights? How can the issue of cybercrimes be analysed
from a feminist perspective? Is this issue currently part of the
women's movement's agenda? How the criminalisation of  online sexual
expression and practices as well as the sex trade affect the sexual
rights of women?

In this edition of GenderIT.org, our team of writers together with the
APC Policy Programme in Latin America Minitor team present the many
facets of this challenging policy area. Their different approaches and
stances clearly demonstrate the difficulty of drawing a clear line
between protection of women's rights from violation and empowering
their status as users and definers of ICT and the information society.
The articles portray the current cybercrime landscape, arising issues
and their gendered dimensions in different regions of the world –
including India, Burkina Faso, USA, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela and
Bolivia. We invite your reflections on this subject that remains
contentious  and sometimes directly absent.

Read the full version of this editorial in the Feminist Talk section:
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=f--e--1&x=96162

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II. NEW ARTICLES

*Finding a difficult balance*
*Human rights, law enforcement and cyber violence against women*
GenderIT writer Mavic Cabrera-Balleza probed on new analytical
frameworks of violence against women taking into account cyber
violence and the challenges and dilemmas women activists confront as
they struggle to address this relatively new dimension of gender
injustice. She spoke with two women activists who are at the forefront
of advocacy on violence against women at the national and
international levels - Lesley Ann Foster, founder and Executive
Director of Masimanye Women's Support Network in South Africa and
Charlotte Bunch, founder and Executive Director of the Center for
Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA.
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=96169

*Cybercrime laws are not enough, there is also a need for education*
The different forms of online violence against women should be covered
by criminal legislation to provide adequate protection and redress.
However, laws are not enough. There is also a need for education,
prevention, the development of defence mechanisms and a legal system
that is capable of addressing these issues without subjecting the
victims to further victimisation. Carlos Gregorio, a researcher at the
Research Institute for Justice (Instituto de Investigación para la
Justicia) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, shares his views on a number of
issues related to cybercrime.
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=96159

*Unequal protection, cyber crime and the internet in India*
In assessing cyber crime legislation, policy makers and gender and
development advocates must carefully consider the implications for
privacy and information security. On the one hand, ICT have created
opportunities to combat inequality through movements and communities
against issues that were once deemed 'private', such as domestic
violence and sex trafficking. On the other hand, ICT exacerbate
existing structures of inequality by enabling cyber criminals to
access and misuse private information to target vulnerable groups. As
ICT blur the lines between personal and public, the nature of the
internet and cyber crime - including how they affect human rights and
social justice - must be questioned. Weiting Xu casts a gendered lens
on cybercrime laws in India.
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=96161

*Dealing with fraud and internet "love": women and cybercrime in
Burkina Faso* Fraud, data piracy, seeking partners on the internet:
Ramata Soré discovers that women in Burkina Faso are as much victims
as perpetrators. From Ouagadougou to Banfora via Bobo-Dioulasso, and
from Ouahigouya to Dori, all towns with an internet connection are
affected by this phenomenon. However, the fight against this crime is
in the tentative stages, if not altogether non-existent. Legislation
is still under development.
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=96160

Visit the collection of a wide variety of other articles and resources
related to this issue in the violence against women section:
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=i90501-e--1

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III. FEATURED RESOURCES

*Take Back The Tech: Reclaiming ICT to end violence against women*
Take Back The Tech! is a yearly 16-day campaign that aims to engage
greater participation by all civil society, especially grrls and women
ICT-users, to think about the issue of violence against women and ICT
in diverse contexts and realities. By calling for all users to reclaim
control over technology, the campaign is asking for the right to
define, access, use and shape ICTs for its potential to transform
power relations, towards a vision and reality of equality.
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=r90501-e96196-1

*Online Harassment/Cyberstalking Statistics*
Cyberstalking statistics have been collected by Working to Halt Online
Abuse (WHOA) - a US-based online safety organisation - over the period
of eight years, from  2000 till 2007.  Data is gathered from survivors
through the demographic questionnaire published on the WHOA web site
at haltabuse.org . The released data are based on a total of 2,285
completed questionnaires. One interesting finding reveals that
although women are still the primary victims, with men as the primary
harassers, male victims and female harassers have significantly
increased over the years.
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=r90501-e96137-1

*CyberStalked: Our Story*
The story of Cynthia Armistead, the founder of the site Cyberstalked
(www.cyberstalked.org). The site originally began as a place to refute
the defamation spread about Cynthia and her family across the
internet. In this story, Cynthia shares the experiences of her and her
daughter as targets of online harassment and stalking over period of
several years.
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=r90501-e96138-1

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IV. JARGON

*Cybercrime*
Cybercrime (or e-crime) refers to criminal offences which are
committed with the aid of ICTs (e.g. internet, mobile phone).
Cybercrime laws may encompass broad range of issues, including such
activities as hacking, intellectual property violations, dissemination
of 'harmful' content such as child pornography or racist and
xenophobic materials. Some experts divide cybercrime into three major
categories, those committed against persons (e.g. online harrasment or
pornography distribution over internet), cybercrimes against property
(e.g. illegal sharing of copyrighted movies and music in peer to peers
networks or software piracy), and cybercrimes against government (e.g.
cyber terrorism).  In many  countries, cybercrime bills focus merely
on economic and state security threads, and fail to recognise
cybercrimes against persons, including serious forms of crimes against
women, such as cyberstalking or cyber harassment.

At the international level, cybercrime is addressed in the Convention
on Cybercrime that attempts to harmonise national laws, improve
investigative techniques and increase cooperation among nations. Human
rights advocates criticize the failure of this treaty to protect
privacy, freedom of expression and civil liberties.

To understand unfamiliar ICT or gender terms visit the Jargon section:
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=j--e--1

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V. WHO'S WHO

*EPIC:Electronic Privacy Frontier*
A public interest research center established in Washington in 1994.
EPIC focus on emerging civil liberties issues, such as protection of
privacy or freedom of expression in the information age. EPIC
activities involve policy research, public education, conferences,
litigation, publications, and advocacy.  Among other, EPIC runs
'Domestic Violence and Privacy'  project aimed to help practitioners
with privacy issues their clients may face. As the part of this
project, EPIC along with domestic violence advocates recommended to
include strong privacy protections of online court records, which may
put in risk domestic violence survivors, into the Violence Against
Women Act (VAWA), the first federal legislation specifically
addressing domestic abuse in USA. In their Gender and Electronic
Privacy study, EPIC also examimes privacy issues from gender
perspective. EPIC website: http://epic.org/ Gender and Electronic
Privacy: http://epic.org/privacy/gender/ Domestic Violence and Privacy
Project: http://epic.org/privacy/dv/

To find out more about key stakeholders in the field of ICTs, visit
the Who's Who in Policy section:
http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?apc=w--e--1

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VI. DID YOU KNOW...

*Gender Centred Archive*
You can now check all editions of GenderIT.org thematic bulletin,
published since 2006, in Gender Centred Archive:
http://www.genderit.org/archive/?q=en/bulletin

*Sign up for Gender Centred thematic bulletin*
You can sign up for Gender Centred thematic e-bulletin focused on
topical gender and ICT policy themes and issued in average four times
per year: http://www.genderit.org/archive/?q=en/subscribe-bulletin ---
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2008 APC Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP)*
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For Your Information
Fouad Bajwa

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