The cultural constraints of women’s rights on the pacific islands

Author: Laura Nobel 

Brussels, 22.11.2015  - A year-long research conducted by a team of anthropologists, lawyers and a filmmaker sheds new light into the complexity of gender equality among societies in 10 pacific islands such as Fiji, Solomon, federated state of Micronesia and Samoa.  The presentation was held on November 20 at the European Commission.

The topic of human rights and gender equality is an important topic within the European framework and is funded to obtain equality on a global scale.  Gender inequality seems to be inevitable in societies bound by the roles in which each gender is expected to behave. This puts women in a state of gender objectification and limits their chances of a future beyond that. To stress the current situation of gender inequality, the research showed that in one of the villages interviewed, 9 out of 12 women is or has been beaten by their husband. 8 out of those 9 women justify their husband’s action and felt it is what they deserved. 

Cultural values in the researched societies complicate the discussion for gender equality. Although these points cite inequality that one would conclude from an uncivil society; this is not the case. Respect, mutuality, social harmony and kindness are values well established in these regions. There is a weak understanding of gender and the fluency of its roles, which is the main cause of the inequalities established. A married woman’s status is defined by that of her husband.

ICTs and internet access as tools for development and social change

Author: Giulia Semeghini

The world has never been more connected than it is today. Indeed, through new technologies and the use of internet it is now possible to communicate with everyone at a global level in just few seconds, making appear our world very small. But this is not valid for everyone.

As recently stated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) - the United Nations (UN) specialized agency for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) – there are four billion people in the developing countries that are still unconnected because they have no internet access. Consequently, this data points out that more than a half of the world population is totally excluded from this interconnected world and that digital divide still remains a core issue to solve.

 

With the aim to discuss about this topic, on the 17^th of November 2015, a seminar was organized at the European Parliament (EP) by the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Marietje Schaake on behalf of the Digital Agenda Intergroup, an informal network of MEP's, cross-party and cross-nationality interested in digital technologies and their role in bringing benefits to society. The seminar, entitled “Tech for change: ICT's, internet access and the post-2015 development agenda” and led by speakers from different organizations, initially was focused on the importance of making more efforts to improve the openness and accessibility of internet.

 

In this regard, Samia Melhem, as a Lead Policy Officer in the World Bank's Transport and ICT Global Practice, highlighted that ICTs can have an important role in supporting public sector transformation, innovation and in improving health and education services. Having the goal of ending extreme poverty and boosting a shared prosperity worldwide, the World Bank sees ICTs as a fundamental tool for transformation. Particularly, she emphasized the efforts made by her Institution to promote e-government, that consists in the use of digital technologies in public administration to foster public services and democratic processes. For this reason she underlined the necessity to promote broadband in every household and reduce disparities in digital access.