On Tuesday 7 March in New York, the Bahá’í International Community held an in-personal parallel event for CSW67. It was entitled “Values in Innovation: Women’s Engagement in Reimagining Digital Technologies” based around their statement to CSW67. There was a full room of like-minded delegates and representatives, including faith groups and NGOs such as Soroptimist International, the Ambassadors of Belize, the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, all there to discuss the intersection of gender equality and digital technology. Delegates joined in from Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Oman, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the UK and USA.
The Belizean delegation highlighted that 80% of their student body is reluctant to embrace technology, and they have only seven years left to achieve the SDGs. They endorsed the Bahá’í CSW67 Statement. Ambassador Carlos Fuller, stated: “Many technologies, which should serve as tools to extend human capability and contribute to the construction of a prosperous and cohesive civilisation, reflective of humanity’s highest values, instead reinforce distorted notions about human nature and identity, progress, and purpose.”
The Polish delegation shared that, out of 60,000 IT specialists under a Government programme, 29,000 are women. Since 2015, women in IT have exceeded men, with 50,000 women and 35,000 men in the field. They endorsed the Bahá’í Statement and emphasised the positive changes they noticed in young female programmes and lifelong learning digital competencies.
Sierra Leone’s delegation also endorsed the Bahá’í Statement and shared their efforts towards achieving gender empowerment for women and girls.
Each delegate gave a 1-minute intervention with a question to continue this important discussion. I gave a 1-minute intervention on behalf of SI, and also asked the question “What are the unique and distinctive qualities, perspectives and contributions that women and girls can make to technological innovation?”
The majority of the speakers covered a similar line of discussion, that the current digital world is controlled and run for profit, with no sense of justice, truthfulness or compassion; the internet is causing a lot of chaos, and the system is failing us. It was felt that we need to learn and legislate, envision and develop an ethical safe future, putting human rights and people central to the discussion. The issue of access to digital technologies was raised, noting that it is limited in rural areas.
Other challenges raised were innovation and technology and the increase in cyber violence taking place. It was felt that the online world reflected the offline world, with patriarchal control creeping into technology through sales and profits. A call for a Parliament of World Communities, a call for humans’ highest wisdom to reflect a human rights approach to all innovation and technology. The Chair wished for this conversation to continue to enable change so that women and girls are not just consumers or victims of technology, but to ensure women and girls are directly involved in the conceptualisation, design and use of technology.