CYBER VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

4.4.1 Global Rights and Normative Frameworks
In addition to previously mentioned rights frameworks
and conclusions from the Special Rapporteur on Freedom
of Expression the following provide guidance and
commitments for action:
• Post2015 Agenda - Sustainable Development
Goals: The Sustainable Development Goals standalone
goal to achieve gender equality tackles
structural causes by highlighting three critical
areas that are holding women back. The first
area is violence against women. Moreover, it also
includes women’s use of enabling technology,
including ICTs, as a means of implementation of
the gender goal.
• Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action — on
women and the media — needs to be reprioritised
in the context of the post-2015 development
agenda. Advocacy for the reprioritisation of
Section J at the CSW asked governments to
recognise the critical role that the media and
information and communications technologies
(ICTs) play in both advancing and stifling
women’s rights. The Secretary General Report
included a detailed assessment of progress and
gaps and number of priority forward looking
recommendations. APC has also developed 10
points on Section J which describes the growing
impact of ICTs on a variety of women’s rights
issues – from access and agency to economics
and ecology. 94
• Commission on the Status of Women: The 2013
CSW outcomes recommended that States should:
“Support the development and use of ICT and
social media as a resource for the empowerment
of women and girls, including access to
information on the prevention of and response to
violence against women and girls; and develop
mechanisms to combat the use of ICT and social
media to perpetrate violence against women
and girls, including the criminal misuse of ICT
for sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, child
pornography and trafficking in women and girls,
and emerging forms of violence such as cyber
stalking, cyber bullying and privacy violations that
compromise women’s and girls’ safety.”
• Convention on the Elimination of the Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW): As with other rights
frameworks CEDAW should be interpreted through
a 21 st century lens by considering online violence
against women within national reporting or through
general comments.
• In the context of cybercrime, stakeholders,
including the UN system have noted the need to
balance rights. Groups such as APC have cautioned
that in the name of spurious measures to “protect”
women online we need to be weary of censorship,
and that efforts should strive to “balance rights
to privacy, freedom of expression and freedom
from violence and harassment for all individuals in
constitutional, civil and criminal law.” 95
4.4.2 National Laws and Regulations
While laws, regulatory frameworks and civil society
action on all aspects of VAWG at national levels are all
extremely important, overarching safeguard standards,
policy guidance and accountability needs Internet industry
leadership as well.
In 74% of Web Index countries, the Web Foundation
found that law enforcement agencies and the courts
are failing to take appropriate actions for cyber VAWG.
96
Furthermore, one in five female Internet users live in
countries where harassment and abuse of women online
is extremely unlikely to be punished. 97 Locally relevant
information on sexual and reproductive health rights and
services and gender-based violence is available via phone
or browser in only 37% of countries.
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