I. Prevention

The Istanbul Convention requires States Parties to take sustained measures that aim to prevent violence against women by addressing its root causes and working to change attitudes, gender roles and stereotypes that make violence against women acceptable. States should recognise the digital dimension of violence against women as a form of gender-based violence against women by taking the necessary legislative and other measures to promote and protect the right for everyone, particularly women, to live free from violence in both the public and the private sphere in accordance with Article 4 of the Istanbul Convention.

Please provide your opinion and suggestions on the following recommendations to the States Parties regarding the prevention of the digital dimension of violence against women. You may provide input on one or more recommendations according to your area of expertise. Please keep your responses below 700 characters. 

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* 1. Consider reviewing any relevant legislation in place to prevent, provide protection from and prosecute the digital dimension of violence against women against the standards of the Istanbul Convention and other relevant standards, including the Convention on Cybercrime of the Council of Europe (Budapest Convention).

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* 2. Undertake initiatives aiming to eradicate gender stereotypes, sexist attitudes and discrimination against women that play out online as much as offline, taking into account the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation CM/Rec(2019)1 on preventing and combating sexism.

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* 3. Foster gender equality in society and support the empowerment and representation of women online by enhancing digital literacy and participation of women and girls.

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* 4. Encourage men and boys to abandon harmful stereotypes of women and men and to adopt respectful and healthy behaviours in the digital sphere.

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* 5. Implement awareness-raising campaigns targeting women and men, girls and boys at different levels of society on different forms of violence against women perpetrated in the digital sphere and support the efforts of women’s organisations towards this end and recognise the expertise acquired by women’s specialist support services in this area.

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* 6. Provide mandatory and continuous capacity building, education and training for all relevant professionals, including but not limited to law-enforcement professionals, criminal justice actors, members of the judiciary, health-care professionals, asylum officials, social service professionals and education professionals, to equip them with knowledge on digital expressions of violence against women, responding to women and girls as victims without causing secondary victimisation and re-traumatisation, and, where relevant, information on existing legal frameworks and international co-operation mechanisms relating to the digital dimension of violence against women as well as on the gathering and securing of electronic evidence.

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* 7. Promote the inclusion of digital literacy and online safety in formal curricula and at all levels of education. Teaching materials made available in line with Article 14 of the Istanbul Convention should enable learners to learn about equality between women and men, non-stereotyped gender roles, mutual respect, non-violent conflict resolution in interpersonal relationships and violence against women, including in its digital dimension.

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* 8. Incorporate digital manifestations of violence against women in any existing intervention programmes for perpetrators of violence, in particular in the context of intimate-partner violence.

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* 9. Encourage the ICT sector and internet intermediaries, including social media platforms, to make an active effort to avoid gender bias in the design of smart products, mobile phone applications and video games, as well as the development of artificial intelligence and - respectively - to create internal monitoring mechanisms towards ensuring the inclusion of victim-centric perspectives as well as to advocate stronger awareness of the perspective and experiences of female users, in particular those exposed to or at risk of intersecting forms of discrimination. Internet intermediaries as well as technology companies should be incentivised to co-operate with NGOs working on violence against women in their awareness-raising and other efforts.

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* 10. Encourage media organisations and journalists’ unions to take concrete steps to eradicate gender-based discrimination and victim-blaming attitudes in all their journalistic activities. Further efforts should be undertaken to uproot male-dominated power dynamics in media landscapes.

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