WGNRR Statement for the CSW 67th Session

The Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), representing over a thousand organizations and individuals worldwide working towards the realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all, welcomes the priority theme of the Commission on the Status of Women on innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

Globally, there is a concentration of technology and connectivity partial to nations in the Global North versus those in the Global South. Across the world, millions of people are still unable to access the internet or devices and enjoy their right to scientific progress — and women and girls are disproportionately excluded. With a majority of women globally that still never have accessed the internet, we are facing a 303-million digital gender gap that is separating women and girls from information and education on their sexual and reproductive health (SRH), safe civic spaces and networks of support, as well as systems of health care.

Various barriers prevent access of marginalised women and girls to technology and digital innovations. Financial constraints such as the high cost of services and the gender wage gap further incapacitate women and girls from affording devices. Their privacy, security, and safety are constantly compromised online, leading to technology-initiated violence, gender-based violence (GBV), sexual abuse, and widespread disinformation. Accompanying the increase of digital technology are cases of cyberviolence against women and children, these are in the form of harassment, threats, stalking, bullying, defamation, hate speech, and online sexual abuse.

While cyber abuse and harassment disproportionately affect women and girls these are not regulated with quite the same vigour as the censorship of feminist-led content on sexual rights and women’s rights information. The digital sphere has been an increasingly dangerous space for civic engagement as anti-women factions and authoritarian governments have taken to the internet to crack down on feminists and women human rights defenders. The right to abortion-focused channels and pages are continually censored, if not, outrightly terminated, including the YouTube Channel of this organization.

The digital gender gap was aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid digitization and automation of technologies pose drastic changes to daily life and many women and girls without material access compounded with structural barriers to learning are left behind in progress. This can also be seen in health systems inevitably shifting towards digital and telemedicine – while they aim to connect more people to health care, the digital gender gap means women and girls are unjustly forced to seek care through disrupted systems. The pandemic has also caused a globally documented learning loss and information gap from lockdowns and school closures whose impacts manifest most grim for countries in the Global South.  These are even grimmer for women and girls who bore the brunt of deficient information delivery, which further exacerbated access to and provision of SRHR information and services. We reiterate that equitable access to technology is paramount to the pursuit of empowerment and gender equality globally.

While the digital gap restricts and limits opportunities for women and girls, it also presents a larger societal, economic, and political impact that affects everyone, especially the most disadvantaged. If this digital exclusion persists, women will not be able to access essential sexual and reproductive health services and information that are vital to them. Issues on the rising number of adolescent pregnancies, unsafe abortions, the spread of sexually transmitted infections, lack of social protection, and GBV will continue to prevail. They will not be able to meaningfully participate in political, economic, and development spheres.

As we address the barriers faced by women and girls in accessing technology and digital information as an important tool for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, it is imperative to ensure that these technological and scientific advances truly serve the most marginalised. Addressing and bridging the gap means women and girls have access to information about their SRHR that enables them to make informed choices about their health, lives, and bodily autonomy. It also means they are given the spaces for leadership, conversation, and advocacy. If a decisive step is to be made towards states’ development goals and commitments to sexual and reproductive health, it is of utmost interest for them to uphold and protect women and girls’ right to education and the enjoyment of benefits of cultural freedom and scientific progress among the full range of their human rights.

Cognizant of this, the WGNRR, through the Sixty-seventh session of this Commission, urge governments and all its instrumentalities to:

• Address the digital divide and information access needs among women and girls, especially those in isolated and disadvantaged areas and sectors through the provision of women-friendly technologies by gender-just and equitable means;
• Ensure the meaningful participation of women and girls in all stages of government and industries’ digitalization plans on science, technology, and innovation;
• Focus inclusive innovations on women in marginalised groups, such as indigenous people, persons with disabilities, rural women with the use of low to medium technology;
• Address misinformation that undermines scientific and rights-based information and perpetuate stigma and ensure accurate and comprehensive information on SRH services such as on abortion, post-abortion care, and contraception;
• Create gender-responsive online policies that mainstream strong anti-censorship programs and protect the privacy of women and girls, with clear policy targets and strict accountability mechanism;
• Provide digital literacy education and increase opportunities to privately access internet enabled devices;
• Increase investments in gender equality, including through the provision of comprehensive sexuality education, to help create an enabling environment for all people to seek out health information and reduce stigma around SRHR;
• Address state and non-state actors move to control, practice surveillance, regulate and restrict feminist expression on the internet through technology, legislation or violence;
• Ensure and protect unrestricted access to information relevant to women and girls particularly information on sexual and reproductive health and rights, pleasure, safe abortion, access to justice, and LGBTIQIA+ issues.