WIDE+ and Creación Positiva submit an open letter to the European Parliament to combat gender-based cyberviolence: Join our social media campaign starting today!

Origi­nal post here

Dear WIDE+ members and friends,



Warm femi­nist gree­tings! In part­ners­hip with our member Crea­ción Posi­tiva,

WIDE+ Migra­tion and Gender Working Group has sent a letter of recom­men­da­ti­ons to Members of the Euro­pean Parli­a­ment, Dr Sylwia Spurek and Ms Elis­sa­vet Vozem­berg-Vrio­nidi on addres­sing legal and policy gaps in tack­ling gender-based cyber­vi­o­lence.

WIDE+ and Crea­ción Posi­tiva submit an

open letter to the Euro­pean Parli­a­ment to

combat gender-based cyber­vi­o­lence:

Join our social media campaign star­ting today

The letter of recom­men­da­ti­ons has been draf­ted and suppor­ted by many women’s rights orga­ni­za­ti­ons and experts inclu­ding NGO AtinaDones­techGlitch UK, Laia Serra Pere­lló, and others. It is a timely initi­a­tive given that the two MEPs are currently driving a legis­la­tive process to combat gender-based violence, with speci­fic refe­rence to cyber­vi­o­lence.

 
Gender-based cyber­vi­o­lence is part of the conti­nuum of wides­pread violence against women and girls and is a seri­ous viola­tion of women’s human rights. All forms of syste­mic and social discri­mi­na­tion, inclu­ding gender, racial and econo­mic ones, are repro­du­ced and magni­fied online. These discri­mi­na­ti­ons inter­sect, resul­ting in more extreme conse­quen­ces for migrant women, young women, women from ethnic mino­ri­ties and indi­ge­nous and raci­a­li­zed women, LGBTIQ+ people, women with func­ti­o­nal diver­sity and women from other vulne­ra­ble and margi­na­li­zed groups.

 
Overall, the letter recom­mends the impor­tance of having a working defi­ni­tion of gender-based cyber­vi­o­lence that can capture the scope, extent, types, gende­red and inter­sec­ti­o­nal nature of this form of violence. At the same time, it outli­nes the impor­tance and urgency for the EU to ratify the Istan­bul Conven­tion, and calls for Inter­net inter­me­di­a­ries to be held accoun­ta­ble for all forms of cyber­vi­o­lence that occur on their plat­forms. The online space is a public space and funda­men­tal human rights have to be protec­ted above other prio­ri­ties.


If you want to show support for the letter and write to your MEPs, kindly reach out to us at: infoatwide-network [ punto ] org (info[at]wide-network[dot]org).



Join us in a 3-day social media campaign star­ting today, 9 June, 12 PM CEST, to end gender-based cyber­vi­o­lence! Follow us on Twit­ter and Face­book at @Femi­nist­WIDE to re-tweet and share our posts! Use the hash­tags #NoToCy­ber­vi­o­lence and #EndGBV.