A/HRC/35/9 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 32/13, in which the Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on ways to bridge the gender digital divide from a human rights perspective. 2. Pursuant to paragraph 13 of resolution 32/13, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) sought contributions from States, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, international organizations, national human rights institutions, civil society, industry, the technical community and academia and other stakeholders.1 The report further draws on a diverse range of public sources. II. Understanding the gender digital divide A. Definitions 3. The term “digital divide” refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels with regard to their opportunities to access information and communications technologies (ICTs) and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities.2 For the purposes of the present report, the “gender digital divide” refers to the measurable gap between women 3 and men in their access to, use of and ability to influence, contribute to and benefit from ICTs. 4 1 2 3 4 2 Contributions were received from: Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechia, El Salvador, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Madagascar, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Togo, Turkey, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Uruguay and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of); European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Committee on the Rights of the Child and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); National Human Rights Commission of Mexico, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, Danish Institute for Human Rights, Defensoría del Pueblo of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Iranian Islamic Human Rights Commission, Office of the Provedor for Human Rights and Justice of Timor-Leste, National Commission for Human Rights of Rwanda, Slovak National Centre for Human Rights; Access Now, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, Article 19, Association for Progressive Communications, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Barbara Schwarze of the competence centre for technology, diversity and equal chances at the Hochschule Osnabrück, Centre of Governance and Human Rights/Africa’s Voices Foundation at the University of Cambridge, Digital Leadership Institute, Digital Rights Foundation, Ericsson, Due Diligence Project, Every1Mobile, Feminism in India, Flavia Marzano — Councillor for Innovation of the City of Rome, GirlZtalk, Global Fund for Women, Google, GSM Association, Hollaback!, IT for Change, Maria Sangiuliano — Department of Computer Sciences at Ca’ Foscari University, Maya Apa, Mozilla Foundation, NetHope, Plan International, Project Include, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the International Computer Science Institute, Shaona Ghosh — Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, Signal Program of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Silicon Valley Robotics, Tearfund, Tech Ladies, the Bachchao Project, the Human Rights, Big Data and Technology Project at the University of Essex, Internet Society, Together for Girls, Turkey Blocks, Twitter, The Womanity Foundation, World Pulse, World Wide Web Foundation and VITO. All contributions are available at www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WRGS/Pages/WaystoBridgetheGenderDigital.aspx. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Understanding the Digital Divide (2001), p. 5. See also A/HRC/17/27, para. 61 and A/HRC/32/37, paras. 31-43. All references to “women” in the present report should be construed as including girls and anyone identifying as a woman. The gender digital divide has also been described as a gender-driven imbalance in access to ICTs, general ICT literacy and presence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics studies (see ITU, “The gender digital inclusion map: research methodology” (2016)).