Resources

New research by the Web Foundation shows that the dramatic spread of mobile phones is not enough to get women online, or to achieve empowerment of women through technology. The study, based on a survey of thousands of poor urban men and women across nine developing countries, found that while nearly all women and men own a phone, women are still nearly 50% less likely to access the internet than men in the same communities, with Internet use reported by just 37% of women surveyed. Once online, women are 30-50% less likely than men to use the internet to increase their income or participate in public life.

Existing research points out that a large number of women and girls in Jamaica suffer from gender based violence. In fact, violence against women (VAW) is a problem throughout the Caribbean region. There is a lack of research in Jamaica on the topic of violence against women and the use of information and communications technologies that can inform policy-makers and those in support services. This research project addresses that gap through the collection of empirical data that included a national survey of Internet users, interviews with survivors of abuse, focus groups, and expert interviews.

This report provides recommendations by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, on how participating States, media organizations and intermediaries can assist in ensuring that female journalists and media actors can work without fear and exercise their human right to freedom of expression.

The Global Media Monitoring Project is a worldwide media monitoring, research and advocacy project implemented collaboratively with women’s rights organizations, grassroots groups, media associations, faith-based / interfaith organizations, university students and researchers across the world. The 2015 results are available!

This report emerges from research carried out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between November 2013 and April 2014 by Si Jeunesse Savait and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) as part of a multi-country project entitled “End violence: Women’s rights and safety online”. Mobile phones had been the most frequently involved platform in the cases of technology-related VAW explored by the local research team. In all three of the cases, the survivors were victim to multiple acts of violence, either by the same person or different people who, for the most part, were in better control of the technology than the victims.

The research project is part of the remedies for victims/survivors of technology-related forms of violence against women (VAW). The project is an implementation by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) in partnership with seven countries: Mexico, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Philippines, Pakistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The 2015 IGF Best Practice Forum (BPF) on Online Abuse and Gender-Based Violence Against Women used an open and inclusive process to gather a broad variety of views and inputs on this multidimensional problem over nine months. As a result of this community-driven process, the BPF’s draft findings reflect a rich diversity of responses from various stakeholders and regions regarding the issue.

In 2015, APC's Women's Rights Programme did advocacy work with the members of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) who are leading the development of the new general recommendations. One of these is the General Recommendation on Access to Justice. Influencing the language of the document in terms of how to incorporate ICTs in the draft was one of the main outcomes of this advocacy effort.

The site launched by the Association for Progressive Communications reflect the background of the “From impunity to justice“ research and share its findings with a wide audience. The multi-country research explored corporate and state remedies for dealing with technology-related violence against women (VAW).