In 2001, a man was charged with murdering his wife after he intercepted her email and learnt that she planned to leave him. Today, hundreds of Indian women denounce street sexual harassment in the Blank Noise Project Blogathon. Meanwhile the best-selling video game series Grand Theft Auto encourages its millions of players to treat female sex workers as objects of aggression and murder. These are just some examples of the tense and ambiguous relationship between the growth in use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the preservation and expansion of women’s rights, in particular the right of women and girls to live lives free from violence.

To APC, the most realistic and sustainable solution to the host of problems presented by these issues is the empowerment of women and girls through skills, knowledge, advocacy and community-building.

This two and a half year project which started in January 2009 aims to help women participants negotiate the fraught terrain of ICTs where freedoms go hand in hand with growing privacy and security concerns. In a multifaceted approach to the intersection between ICT use and violence against women and girls, APC is:

• administering small grants for interventions aimed at stopping violence against women through the use of ICTs
• localising the Take Back the Tech! campaign in the 12 selected countries
• organising Feminist Tech Exchanges to build the capacity of women’s right activists, marginalised women and girls, including survivors of violence
• catalysing policy advocacy processes to integrate women’s rights perspectives in ICT policies in national contexts

• working to increase women’s involvement and leadership in ICT policy spaces that have an impact on women’s rights.

Ultimately, we want to help create a global community of women and adolescent girls who are critically taking up ICT tools and using them to change what the UN Millenium Project has called a global epidemic of violence.

What countries are involved?

The project will be carried out in 12 developing countries:

Africa: South Africa, Uganda, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Asia: Pakistan, Cambodia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Latin America: Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil.

Who are the women and girls most likely to benefit?

Marginalised women: Survivors of domestic and sexual violence will participate directly in training activities. Vulnerable women, especially poor, rural and migrant women, will be reached in partnership with women’s rights organisations and work will be aimed at increasing their capacity to use technology for awareness-raising and educational rights-based campaigns.

Teenage girls: The project will reach out to adolescent girls and girls’ networks in target countries for participation in training activities, digital story telling workshops, and in the Take Back the Tech! campaign.

Women in armed conflict: The project will offer training on safe practices for internet and telecommunications use to women and women’s organisations working in conflict situations.

Photo by APC – digital post card as a part of the Take Back the Tech! campaign