online GBV

Ten years ago it was hard to explain what is gender based violence online, while now there is some recognition of the widespread misogyny and violence that exists in online spaces towards women and gender non conforming people. It took a decade of tough, dedicated work by women all over the world that finally put technology-related violence in the spotlight. This edition is a collection of…

A feminist internet works towards empowering more women and queer persons – in all our diversities – to fully enjoy our rights, engage in pleasure and play, and dismantle patriarchy. This integrates our different realities, contexts and specificities – including age, disabilities, sexualities, gender identities and expressions, socioeconomic locations, political and religious beliefs, ethnic…

Pluses were the 32nd session of HRC acknowledging that women face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, online violence got a mention and so did indigenous women human rights defenders. Negatives were how far is all this from the realities of sexuality and gender based discrimination and violence.

There are myriad mobile phone apps meant to be deployed for personal safety, but technical wizardry perhaps makes it easy to lose sight of the fact that technology is not a saviour but a tool or an enabler. Technology alone cannot be the panacea of a problem that is deeply complex and, in reality, rooted in society and governance.

Findings of the Internet Democracy Project research study, ‘”Don’t Let It Stand!”: An Exploratory Study of Women and Verbal Online Abuse in India’, indicate that women in India develop a variety of strategies to deal with the verbal threats they face. However, these strategies very rarely include the law,resulting in a silence around questions of legal effectiveness and recourse for online verbal…

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.

Nina finished her work day at the high-fashion clothing store in the biggest shopping mall in Sarajevo. She sighed, remembering everything she had to go through to get out of that violent and abusive relationship that she endured for three years. One thousand and ninety-five days until she found the strength and support to end it. But that was just one step in the continuum of violence that would…

Welcome to the fourth in a series of 7 mini-editions we’re putting together to highlight the project “End violence: Women’s rights and safety online”. Each edition focuses on one country in which the research was conducted, and brings together articles, major findings, and interviews with the research teams. In this edition we look at Mexico, where legislation often doesn’t translate into…

An interview by Florencia Goldsman with research report author Gabriela Polanco and APC’s project coordinator in Mexico Erika Smith explores many of the nuances that emerged from the research. From assessing to what extent technology is an enabler of violence to musing on the various meanings of ‘justice’ for survivors, this conversation takes us behind the scenes of the Mexican edition of the…

This report describes research carried out by Colnodo in Colombia between February and May 2014 as part of an Association for Progressive Communications (APC) project covering seven countries, titled End violence: Women's rights and safety online.