cybercrime

Derechos Digitales maps cases involving the abusive use of cybercrime regulation to silence and criminalise women and LGBTQIA+ people worldwide. The results are troubling and warn of the inherent danger of imposing international standards without considering national contexts or building human rights safeguards, particularly for historically marginalised groups.

This article provides insights into the recently passed Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act, 2021 in Zambia, from the perspective of Laura Miti, an award-winning human rights defender. Mitri alerts on how this act gives sweeping powers to the government to hush criticism of any kind and curtail freedom of expression and privacy.

IT for Change held a consultation in 2017 on the various forms of gender based cyber violence that affects women in India. Here various researchers and speakers gathered to share their data, insight and questions on the kinds of online violence faced by women in different professions, strata and social locations - from vernacular journalists to students in colleges, rural and urban women. This…

A conservative estimate is that 42 million people are prostituted worldwide, of which 90% are exploited by pimps, and every year 2 million people are added to this number. Latin America has 10% of trafficking in persons for sexual activities - nearly half of the victims are children and youth under 18 years. Human trafficking is considered the third most profitable form of crime in the world,…

Kenya has been one of the first African countries to adopt and innovate ICTs. With this have come both benefits, but also a rise in cybercrime and technology-based violence. A recent study by the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANET) on women and cyber crime in Kenya explores this violence. To unpack the findings of this study, Naomi Kamau spoke to the team behind the study: Alice Munyua, an…

The statement developed by the Women's Legal Bureau (WLB) in response to the Cybercrime Bill. WLB highlights the specific women's rights concerns in relation to the bill, in particular warn that the law can be used to further perpetuate violence against women. They are still in the process of gathering support and you are invited to sign on to show your support to the cause.

The recent passage of the Philippine Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (or the Republic Act 10175) has elicited strong negative reactions from various stakeholders. Civil society organizations (CSOs), academe, journalists, bloggers, and Filipino netizens have expressed great concern over certain provisions of the law that impinged their constitutional right to freedom of expression. To date,…

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has been a challenging space for both women's rights advocates and for broader constituencies engaged in advocacy for gender equality and sexuality related rights. In the fifth and final year of its mandate, women's rights are still being dwarfed as a critical issue to be debated in this arena, while sexuality issues, although present, are not seen as a matter…

Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States of America are presently negotiating a trade agreement regarding counterfeiting and the enforcement of intellectual property rights, known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Erika Smith, communications coordinator of APC WNSP, took part in the…

In assessing cyber crime legislation, policy makers and gender and development advocates must carefully consider the implications for privacy and information security. On the one hand, ICT have created opportunities to combat inequality through movements and communities against issues that were once deemed 'private', such as domestic violence and sex trafficking. On the other hand, ICT…