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https://www.apc.org/en/node/15007/
PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: STRATEGIES OF SURVIVORS OF TECH-RELATED VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Source: GenderIT.org
By Bianca Baldo* - 10 January, 2015
Imagine for a moment, a woman standing on a podium chanting the slogan:
“Demanding safe spaces on the internet!” The speech is recorded and blogged
about by various activists, workshops are organised and women demand justice
from their local authorities. It’s electronically networked to inform about
tech-related violence against women (VAW). In principle, all levels of these
interactions are protected by freedom of expression (FOE). The woman at the
podium, organisations and survivors have the right to express ideas without
adverse consequence. In reality, many women continue to be victims of the emergence
of tech-related VAW.
Tech-related VAW hinders Freedom of Expression (FOE) as it creates an
environment of fear, intimidation, violence, social isolation and impunity.
This article will explore the effects of tech-related VAW on women’s rights to
FOE, providing insight on human rights law; the different forms of tech-related
VAW; reasons behind it; weaknesses in the responses; and strategies used by
online tech-related VAW survivors.
In light of the changing nature of information and communication technologies
(ICTs) and their growing impact on the rights of women, the Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Rights
Programme carried out research as part of its project entitled “End
violence: Women’s rights and safety online” that examined the
relationship between tech-related VAW and the access to and use of ICTs.
Based on the earlier example, here are a few ways in which tech-related VAW
could adversely affect FOE:
1. Speaking your mind: Protections for freedom of expression
The right to Freedom of Expression is a fundamental right protected by
international human rights law. It creates a series of rights and
responsibilities that colour all our social communication and sets the rules on
how to respond to differences in opinions.
The protections extend to all communications in
writing or oral expression through any other media of choice, including social
media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, cellphone communications
and email exchanges, etc.
The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights allows individuals to hold opinions, to
express ideas without interference and to seek, receive and impart information
and ideas through any media. Supplementing this, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
states that all restrictions must be provided by law and be necessary “for the respect of the rights or reputations of others and
for the protection of national security or of public order… or of public health
or morals” It prohibits the use of FOE to advocate for “national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes
incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence”. Importantly,
these rights and restrictions allow women human rights groups to challenge
culturally set norms. These conventions limit using FOE as a pretext to
personally attack the reputations of women.
Although there is no specific article in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women relating to FOE, it provides a legal framework that
promotes and protects women against economic, cultural, social and cultural
exclusion. It creates and strengthens environments favorable to women’s
expression and political participation. CEDAW General Recommendation No. 23 recognizes
the difference between women’s de jure and de facto exercise of freedom of
expression, particularly the ability of women to participate in public life in
without risk of violence. CEDAW General Recommendation No. 19 highlights
the inherent link between discrimination experienced by women, situations of
gender-based violence, and violations of fundamental freedoms, including FOE
violations.
Finally, the UN Beijing Platform For Action stresses the role
of the media in raising awareness and educating society on the causes and
effects of violence against women and the importance of stimulating public
debate on the issue. It asks governments to promote increased participation,
expression and decision-making of women in and through ICTs.
Although it does not specifically use the terminology of freedom of expression,
it states that women cannot engage in healthy expression and debates on
violence against women without exercising the right to FOE.
2. Watching your words: Types of tech-related violence against women
In principle, the protections found in human rights law should offer sufficient
protection of women’s FOE, yet tech-related VAW is on the increase. The End violence
project ellaborated a report collecting case studies which is a
collection of testimonies by women survivors of tech-related VAW from around
the world.
The report found that the following examples of tech-related VAW have
directly affected women’s rights:
3. Understanding tech-related VAW: Different reasons for its use!
ICTs are being deployed as a means to punish women and activists for
demanding changes in leadership and gender equality. It is linked to wider
social trends that promote VAW as a tool to maintain social norms and restrict
gender roles. From the End violence report, it is possible to extract
five distinct rationale for tech-related VAW, ultimately resulting in the
reduction of rights to FOE.
a. Oppressing women, controlling sexuality and maintaining social order
There have been countless accounts of women in the study, from all regions
of the globe, testifying on the use of ICTs as a means to maintain abusive
personal relationships and to introduce unwanted sexual contact.
The End
violence report tells the story of a young woman, a professional
entertainer that experiences firsthand the perverse effects of tech-related VAW
and how it impacted her ability to continue to express herself through ICTs.
During a work related performance, her image was taken without her consent and
used to create a false love video that was circulated on Facebook, YouTube and
other internet platforms.
“The video was about forbidden love between him and me, where he fully
wrote down my name, the city where I am from, and [posted] my Facebook
pictures… If someone who did not know the entire story saw it, they would
probably think it is a sweet love story.”
During the following four years, she experienced phone calls and texts
harassing and bullying her into a relationship with her stalker. She
experienced violations to her rights to privacy, stealing of her identity and
private information, emotional harm and threats. She had to change her phone
number numerous times and contacted YouTube providers in vain to remove the
video.
b. Silencing community organisations that promote women’s rights to gender
equality
There are clear trends in the use of ICTs as a way to silence women human
rights organizations. An example from the End violence
case studies demonstrates how an organisation and its employees
experienced online and offline threats by fundamentalist paramilitary groups.
The text from one of these emails reads, “We repeat that we will not be
responsible for what might happen to the leaders of these organisations, their
boards of directors and their collaborators, as we have begun to exterminate
each one of them without mercy.”
During the period in which the emails were sent, three women associated and
working with the organisation were victims of sexual violence, harassment and
stalking. As a consequence of these acts of violence, internal security within
the organisation was tightened, which created an environment of distrust.
Employees started to fear using available ICTs, exercising caution when writing
emails or talking on their mobile phones.
c. Limiting women from roles of leadership and political participation
Women involved in political participation have often experienced harassment
and threats of violence against their persons. This has been intensified by
using ICTs to intimidate, cyber-bully and limit their FOE.
In this example from the End violence report, the hopeful candidate used
online platforms and social media to communicate with her electorate and to get
in touch with citizens online, specifically through Facebook. During the course
of the election campaign, she began to face several forms of verbal abuse and
psychological attacks: “I had quite an interesting experience – a lot of
insults, a lot of rude messages, a lot of hate. Comments such as: “You will be
a failure” or “I believe you running for this election is a waste of resources”
were common.
In order to halt the personal attacks on her integrity and dignity, she
decided to remove herself from all social media during the election campaign.
In this regards, tech-related VAW directly violated her right to FOE.
d. Isolating and attacking women in the LGBTIQ communities
The End
violence case studies highlights the persistent use of ICTs as a way
to directly attack women and activists from the LGBTIQ community. The following
case depicts the experience of many LGTTBI community members. The woman in
question was subjected to threats, discrimination and surveillance by cell
phone, email and social networks because of her lesbian rights activism.
The survivor’s contact information was available on a resources page for
the LGBTIQ community. This information was used to threaten her on social
media, by blog comments, by cell message and email. She “received an email at
our Yahoo account threatening that they were going to burn down our house,’ she
says. ‘The threat said, “We know where you are, what time you meet… You are a
pig, you are going to rot in hell.” Disturbingly, the threats of physical
violence were also aimed at her immediate family and friends. She found
numerous violent blog comments such as you “fat, lesbian women”; and threats to
rape her daughter if she continued to seek legal justice.
Survivors of tech-related VAW often adopt restrictive and preventative behaviors
during the violation period. She recalls, “I didn’t want to leave the house. I
was terrified and felt guilty. I was the dummy who had put our address on the
internet… I wanted to shut myself away from the world.” Contrary to the
majority of cases examined in the report, these acts of tech-related VAW did
not result in her decreasing her use of ICTs. She mentions, “I think the
internet is marvellous… and I can’t, I don’t want to, I won’t stop using it.”
e. Luring vulnerable groups into sexual exploitation
New ICTs can contact a wide range of potential victims for the purpose of
sexual exploitation. In the majority of human trafficking cases, the survivor
already knows the trafficker as a family member or friend. Often social media
platforms such as Facebook and cell messaging will be used to lure victims away
from their community to a destination location. The survivor will then be
forced into sexual and labor exploitation. Love
bombing is commonly used, where the survivor believes that she is
meeting a boyfriend based on previous romantic messages or emails. Once
isolated, the survivor quickly learns that the texts or messages were lies and
now finds herself trapped in a cycle of abuse.
The End
violence case studies report describes a situation where a young
girl experienced love bombing through her cell phone. The text messages between
her and her trafficker began as a pleasant flirtation, then escalated to his
demanding her to have sex with her, then over time became threats of sending
messages to family members, of sexually exploiting her younger sister or of
killing her mother if she continued to refuse. After months of continued
harassment, she agreed to meet her aggressor in a nearby city. Upon her
arrival, she was greeted by a stranger who proceeded to bring her to the
traffickers’ home, where she and two other girls were held captive. During this
time, she was a victim of physical violence and sexual assault, including rape.
Her trafficker forced her to send numerous text messages to her mother saying
that she was safe and happily living with her boyfriend. After three months of
captivity, the young girl managed to escape and seek help from a local women’s
shelter.
Not only was tech-related VAW used to lure, then silence this young girl
into sexual exploitation but the same technology was used to convince her
family that she had ran off with a boyfriend and had no need for protection
from kidnapping and sexual assault. Importantly, the local police argued that
the texts sent home were sufficient proof that she was safe. She was unable to
use her technology to effectively communicate with her family and to seek
justice for the violations she experienced.
4. Failing to support survivors, where are the protections against
tech-related violence and freedom of expression violations?
The End
violence report highlights the systemic failures of society to
respond to male violence against women. The diverse case studies all show
society’s inability to effectively promote rights, prevent violations and
prosecute perpetrators of tech-related VAW. As AWID says, there is a direct link between the
protection of freedom of expression and the way society treats women who choose
to seek justice.
Based on the findings of the case studies, the following trends seriously
impede women’s ability to challenge tech-related VAW:
5. Seeking justice: Strategies adopted by survivors of tech-related VAW!
It is important to stress that even in situations where women survivors of
tech-related VAW have access to resources that challenge the multitude of
social, legal and political barriers, the decision to use legal avenues to seek
justice remains a personal decision. In some situations, prosecution of the
perpetrator of the crime will be necessary for survivors to feel a sense of
justice. Other times, simply ending the tech-related VAW is sufficient. The
strategies adopted by women, support networks and non-government stakeholders
greatly depend on the type of tech-related crime, the existence of national
laws, the capacity and knowledge of law enforcement and government agencies,
the social safety nets available to women, willingness of service providing
companies to address tech-related VAW and the financial insecurity of
survivors. Having said this, the first strategy of defence was to remove or
limit women’s use of ICTs during the violations, such as:
Second, women have contacted local or national women’s groups specialising
in VAW protection. These groups can offer referrals to a wide range of
services, including emotional support, psychological support, legal support and
economic support.
Third, many survivors found it helpful to share experiences with family and
close friends that are not involved in the perpetration of the crime. This
provided support networks and protections against social and virtual isolation.
Fourth, reporting the incident to police and government agencies has
occasionally been effective in ending the negative behaviour. The problem
remains that without the support of community groups or family, survivors found
that the process of seeking justice was riddled with administrative negligence,
personal judgement and often leads to the re-victimisation of the survivor. In
a few cases, when finances permitted, survivors were able to seek justice
though the hiring of a private lawyer specialising in cyber-crime.
Finally, in a small number of cases, survivors or human rights
organisations were able to group their efforts, in partnership with likeminded
organisations, to create education activities on the issue and promote
increased awareness in their society.
To ensure that the FOE of women survivors and activists is not restricted
by the growth of ICTs, we must challenge tech-related VAW through education,
funding and awareness. Freedom of expression facilitates the spread of information,
so free expression actors are well situated to raise awareness and change
attitudes towards women and violence against them. It is through the
promotion and protection of these rights, that women will “heighten
their ability to gather and transmit stories of violence against wome.”.
To read the full research in which this article draws on, click here
* Bianca Baldo has over eight years of
coordination experience in women human rights and anti human-trafficking
advocacy, program management, gender protection and capacity-building training
in Ecuador, Vietnam, Cambodia, Jamaica and Canada. She has completed a
Bachelors of Arts in Comparative Development from Trent University, a Civil Law
degree from University of Ottawa and Masters in Law from McGill University. She
is presently working as a consultant with Roos-Remillard Consulting Services,
on program design, funding proposals and training modules against human
trafficking.