CYBER VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

4
TACKLING CYBER VAWG:
A MULTI-LEVEL APPROACH
4.1 Pursuing a multi-level approach
The diagram below submits that most policy and practice
fall into one of three categories of action:
1. Preventive measures through public sensitization
and consciousness-raising;
2. Promotion of safeguards for safety and equality on
the Internet for women and girls;
3. Putting in place and enforcement of sanctions.
“Anticipate problems and help solve them not only for
yourself but for everybody else in the community. Act like a
citizen. Not a passive ‘user.’ “
Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder, Global Voice
Each one of these pillars supports the others, and will
need consistent, collaborative action at multiple levels.
4.2 Sensitization: changing societal
norms
Article 5 of the CEDAW declares that States have an
obligation to “take all appropriate measures to modify
the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and
women, with a view to achieving the elimination of
prejudices and customary and all other practices which
are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority
of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and
women”.
This language is critically important, and its
operationalization truly impactful in terms of changing
behaviours. The UN Human Rights Council agrees when
it emphasized that “The prevention approach is the more
sustainable [approach], focusing on change, whereas the
State obligation to protect and punish remains relevant in
combating violations”.
27