violence against women

María Isabel and María Alejandra Davidziuk compare the findings of four national reports from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia undertaken as part of the APC WNSP project “Strengthening women’s strategic use of ICTs to combat violence against women and girls”. In their analysis they look at some barriers (both institutional and cultural) that need to be overcome in order for ICTs to be…

Sonia Randhawa, genderIT.org writer and editor, compares the findings of four national reports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines undertaken by the APC WNSP as part of the project “Strengthening women’s strategic use of ICTs to combat violence against women and girls”.

Cristina Peralta examines the situation in Argentina, where few cases of VAW using ICTs have been denounced. One study found that a small percentage of young girls had been contacted by unknown people via chat or Facebook before disappearing. Cell phones are also used for controlling women's mobility and have become one of the first artifacts to be destroyed by the partner during violent…

Chim Manavy examines how growth of the internet is pushing the limits of a society's attitudes towards acceptable media images, through exploitative use of images taken for private consumption. Technology is moving across boundaries faster than the law can address. At the same time, ICT use in general, much less awareness of how ICTs can be strategically used to combat violence against women, is…

In this paper, Ingrid Leao, Thais Lapa and Tamara Amoroso discuss violence against women in the media, with advertisement and TV show examples. It also looks at civil society expectations for the first National Conference on Communications, to be held in December 2009. It examines the use of social networks like Orkut and Twitter; denouncements of VAW practices, such as cyber-bullying of teenage…

Lucy Niño and Lida Nuñez look at how the Colombian government has paid special attention to ICT policies, offering ICT literacy programmes and ICT inclusion in marginalised areas, while at the same time ICTs are used to promote prostitution and pornography produced in the country via the internet and cellphones. Government has produced a campaign to foster a “healthy use” of internet and to…

Jac SM Kee and Sonia Randhawa highlight forms of VAW that have received recognition in Malaysia and provide the context of ICT development and national policy objectives in this paper. It is not an exhaustive assessment of the current state of VAW, but rather aims to surface some of the interconnections between ICT issues and VAW and areas of potential opportunities for advocacy, as well as…

Two key debates are examined in the paper by Shereen Essof: censorship versus freedom of expression and privacy versus surveillance. She looks at the practices of VAW in a country with the world's highest reported rate of femicide and where there is little understanding of the strategic use of ICTs to support combating VAW as well as recognizing new avenues for perpetrating violence against women.

Aramanzan Madanda, Berna Ngolobe and Goretti Zavuga Amuriat look at how ICTs have been used to help provide spaces for women and sexual minorities. Sexual minorities have a presence on the internet to articulate concerns of members and raise awareness. Women’s mobile phone use is controlled by their husbands, who either give or withold permission to use and dictate when and how. Some women have…

Take Back The Tech! is a yearly 16-day campaign that aims to engage greater participation by all civil society, especially grrls and women ICT-users, to think about the issue of violence against women and ICT in diverse contexts and realities. By calling for all users to reclaim control over technology, the campaign is asking for the right to define, access, use and shape ICTs for its potential…