Crossing borders : cyberspace and national security
This edition of GenderIT.org explores the online safety of women human rights defenders from the perspective of national security and counter-terrorism. National security often encompasses a variety of security threats, including those in cyberspace. While national security measures are meant to protect the security of a nation and its citizen, in many contexts they serve as a pretext for suppressing unfavourable political and social views. Despite the fact that online & offline security measures adversely impact on women’s and sexual rights, women and sexual minorities are still two of the most invisible stakeholders in national security debates. This editions delves into some of these risks and examines explicitly messages that we have touched on before (that link this edition to previous one), particularly why & how women human rights defenders can become players in the spaces that govern cyberspace.
This edition of GenderIT.org includes the preliminary results of the first international survey of the online threats faced by WHRDs.
The edition is a part of APC’s “Connect your rights: Internet rights are human rights” campaign financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency .
_Photo by Paolo Cuttitta palestine. Used with permission under Creative Commons licence 2.0
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Let’s stop our fear of tech leading to misuse of security legislation
I was very happy when I was asked to be guest editor of this edition of GenderIT.orgi on women human rightsi defenders (WHRD) and national cyber security policies. This is an important and timely issue for WHRDsi because the misuse of counter-terrorism legislation to quell dissent and further marginalise minority voices is on the rise.