Microsoft Word Dakar Declaration For Website Publication (Nov 2017). docx

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DAKAR DECLARATION 
 
Recalling 
the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the 4
th
World 
Conference on Women in 1995, which identified and anticipated the importance of 
emerging global technology and communications platforms as critical spaces for women’s 
equal participation and inclusion, and which included a strategic objective to “increase the 
participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the 
media and new technologies of communication”; 
Recalling
the Preamble to the WSIS+10 Statement on implementation of the outcomes of 
the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), reaffirming the importance of 
promoting and maintaining gender equality and women’s empowerment, guaranteeing the 
inclusion of women in the emerging global ICT society, including the mandate of UN 
Women; 
Recalling
the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of 
Women in Africa, notably Article 2 concerning the elimination of discrimination against 
women and the need to integrate a gender perspective in their policy decisions, legislation, 
development plans, programmes and activities, and in all other spheres of life, as well as 
Article 9 Right to Participation in the Political and Decision-Making Process, and Article 12, 
Right to Education and Training, which underlines the need to promote education and 
training for women at all levels and in all disciplines, particularly in the fields of science and 
technology;
Recalling 
the Open Data Charter, notably Principles 3 (Accessible and Usable), 5 (
For 
Improved Governance and Citizen Engagement
) and 6 (
For Inclusive Development and 
Innovation
), governments should raise awareness of open data, promote data literacy, build 
capacity for effective use of open data, and ensure citizen, community, and civil society and 
private sector representatives have the tools and resources they need to effectively 
understand how public resources are used; encourage the use of open data to develop 
innovative, evidence-based policy solutions that benefit all members of society, as well as 
empower marginalised communities; and create or support programmes and initiatives that 
foster the development or co-creation of datasets, visualisations, applications, and other 
tools based on open data;
Recalling
the African Platform on Access to Information Declaration of 2011; 

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Recalling 
Resolution 70 of the ITU (Rev. Busan, 2014) - Mainstreaming a gender perspective 
in ITU and promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women through 
information and communication technologies; 
Recalling the ECOWAS Supplementary Act on Equal Rights between Women and Men for 
Sustainable Development in the Community Region: 
 
Recalling
that in 2013, the Broadband Commission endorsed an advocacy target, calling for 
gender equality in access to broadband by 2020; 
Recalling 
that the Commission on the Status of Women, at its 57
th
session, in 2013, adopted 
agreed conclusions that highlighted emerging issues, such as the role of information, 
communication and technology and social media; 
Recalling 
SDG 5, Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, specifically the 
targets to 1) enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and 
communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women, and 2) adopt and 
strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality 
and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels;
Recalling 
the Accra Summit Action Plan adopted in Accra on the occasion of the Africa 
Summit on Women and Girls in Technology; 
Recalling 
the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms endorsed by the African 
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in October 2016 in Banjul, Gambia, notably 
Article 13 with regards to gender equality, underlining that to help ensure the elimination 
of all forms of discrimination on the basis of gender, women and men should have equal 
access to learn about, define, access, use and shape the internet. Efforts to increase access 
should therefore recognise and redress existing gender inequalities, including women’s 
under-representation in decision-making roles, especially in internet governance; 
Considering
recommendations made in the March 2017 report by the Working Group on the 
Digital Gender Divide and 
Recommendations for Action: Bridging the Gender Gap in Internet 
and Broadband Access and Use 
by the UN Broadband Working Group on the Digital Gender 
Divide; 
Anticipating
the Sixty-Second session of the Commission on the Status of Women Review 
Theme will be participation in and access of women to the media, and information and 
communications technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the 
advancement and empowerment of women and the agreed conclusions of the 47
th
session; 

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