CYBER VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

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A VIEW TO ENDING
CYBER VAWG THROUGH
PARTNERSHIPS AND
COALITIONS
Working with platforms that provide for and enable
meaningful participation in policy discussion and decision
making by and for women will be an important step
to build a strong foundation. Global multi-stakeholder
processes can also provide collaborative space to discuss
complexities in policies and legal debates that surround
cyber VAWG, such as questions of balancing safety of
women from violence on the one hand and freedom of
expression on the other hand, or question of Internet
intermediaries liability. 111
The majority of big and small Internet companies can be
expected to support a system of checks and balances;
that the power for investigations into harassment, threats
of physical safety, sexual violence, kidnapping (etc.)
must ultimately lie with courts and law enforcement;
and that therefore laws that direct companies in their
responsibilities are necessary. However, the waters
start to muddy when it comes to compliance and
prosecuting. 112 Some examples include:
• The Inter-parliamentary Task Force on Internet
Hate passed a formal resolution establishing
the Anti-Cyber-hate Working group made up
of industry representatives, nongovernmental
organisations, academics and others to ‘build best
practices for understanding, reporting upon and
responding to Internet hate”
• The world’s largest regional security organization,
the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) promotes comprehensive security
through conflict prevention, crisis management
and post-conflict rehabilitation. The OSCE
addresses VAW as a serious obstacle to the
realization of gender equality. The persistence of
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