gender-based violence
Oral statement delivered under Item 3: Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy and the Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, UN Human Rights Council 37th Session, 6 March 2018 Thank you Mr. President. The Association for Progressive Communications welcomes the opportunity to engage in this dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy. We commend his report's gendered approach to privacy and surveillance and the recognition that ...
Online platforms and electronic communication have facilitated the spontaneous, dispersed, democratic forms of protest characterising the movement in Hong Kong. A variety of different forms of protest can thus be promoted and organised from the grassroots of a leaderless movement. Thus on any given weekend in Hong Kong, while those trashing symbols of "red capital" (Chinese banks and companies) and "blue" (pro-government) businesses and engaging in running battles with the police hit the head...
“So many years past being raped, I tell myself what happened is 'in the past.' This is only partly true. In too many ways, the past is still with me. The past is written on my body. I carry it every single day. The past sometimes feels like it might kill me. It is a very heavy burden.” These words from Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxanne Gay are more or less the exact words a victim of...
The 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) wrapped up earlier this month, with the adoption of 20 resolutions including quite a few touching on key internet-related human rights issues. This session of the UN HRC reflects growth in the Council’s understanding of the scope of internet-related human rights and the outcomes were valuable overall and will contribute to the advancement ...
Joint Statement by the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project), Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF), International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), International Lesbian...
This submission is a stakeholder contribution to the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism for Mexico. The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) appreciates the opportunity to participate in this cycle and recognises the important human rights issues being raised by other stakeholder reports. This submission is limited to addressing the growing concerns regardi...
The Association for Progressive Communications’ Women’s Rights Programme (APC WRP) has worked to render visible the impact of online gender-based violence (GBV) on women’s rights for more than a decade. We have worked with women's organisations and advocates to identify, monitor, analyse and combat uses of the internet and digital technologies that are harmful to women and marginalised co...
In May 2017, countless South African women took to Twitter and Facebook to share their harrowing experiences of abuse under the hashtag #MenAreTrash. The outpour of tweets and Facebook posts was sparked by the murder of Karabo Mokoena, a 22-year-old woman who was allegedly killed and burned by her boyfriend. Although the wording of #MenAreTrash has caused controversy, that will not be the focal...
This report explores women’s experiences of and demands for corporate accountability in cases of technology-related violence against women (VAW) as highlighted by the Association for Progressive Communication’s (APC) seven-country research initiative, “From impunity to justice: Exploring corporate and legal remedies for technology-related violence against women”, conducted in Bosnia and...
A 14 year old girl living with her sister was harassed by her brother-in-law, even in front of her sister. The latter thought it was just jokes, so she encouraged her partner to do so. Two years ago, in Brazzaville, the girl was dragged by her brother-in-law into a hotel so he could rape her. She talked to her sister but she did not believe her, she also beat her and kicked her out of the house...