The United Nations Broadband Commission has urged governments and industries to evolve measures that would protect women and girls against online threats and harassment.
The call is contained in the commission’s report released in Lagos on Saturday and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
NAN reports that the report is entitled ”Combating Online Violence against Women and Girls: A Worldwide Wake-Up Call”.
The report was released by the commission’s Working Group on Gender, co-chaired by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, Ms Helen Clark and UN Under-Secretary-General and Women Executive Director, Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The report revealed that almost three quarter of women online had been exposed to some form of cyber violence.
It noted that in spite of the growing number of women experiencing online violence, only 26 per cent of law enforcement agencies in the 86 countries surveyed were taking appropriate actions against it.
”It is hoped that this report will mobilise the public and the private sector to put in place concrete strategies aimed at stemming the tide of online violence against women.
”Without a concerted global action to curb the various escalating forms of online violence, there can be an upsurge of Cyber Violence against Women and Girls (Cyber VAWG).
“This can run rampant and significantly impede the uptake of broadband by women everywhere,” it said.
The report said that cyber VAWG existed in many forms, including online harassment, public shaming, desire to inflict physical harm, sexual assaults, murder and induced suicides.
It added that the rapid spread of the Internet meant that effective legal and social control of online anti-social and criminal behaviours continued to be an immense challenge.
According to it, in the age of the social internet and mobile access anywhere, cyber violence can strike at anytime and could relentlessly follow its targets everywhere.
”In this report, we are arguing that complacency and failure to address and tackle cyber violence could significantly impede the uptake of broadband services by girls and women worldwide.
”The Internet is an amazing resource for personal empowerment and we need to ensure that as many girls and women as possible benefit from the amazing possibilities it offers,” it said.
Commenting on the report, UNDP’s Clark said that violence against women and girls was never acceptable anywhere, no matter whether it was committed on the streets, at home or on the highway.
”To achieve sustainable development for all, we must build a world where women and girls can live their lives free of violence and fulfil their potential as valued and equal members of society,” Clark said.
In her remarks, Mlambo-Ngcuka said that online violence had reversed the original positive promise of the internet freedoms.
She said that in too many circumstances, online violence had made the internet a chilling space that permitted anonymous cruelty and facilitated harmful acts towards women and girls.
”We want to reclaim and expand the opportunities it offers, and that means recognising the scale and depth of the damage being done and taking strong and concerted steps to stop it.
”Abuse online is still abuse, having with it the potency and very real consequences,” she said.
NAN reports that the document presents a set of key recommendations, proposing a global framework based on Sensitisation, Safeguard and Sanction.
It stated that rigorous oversight and enforcement of rules banning cyber VAWG on the Internet would be an essential foundation stone.
According to it, this is necessary if the Internet is to become a safe, respectful and empowering space for women and girls, and by extension, for boys and men.
