A Guide for Women and Girls to Prevent and Respond to Cyberviolence

A Guide for Women and Girls to Prevent and Respond to Cyberviolence has been developed to help build awareness on the different forms of cyberviolence and provide some essential practices and strategies to minimize being subjected to cyberviolence - and to be able to respond in case it happens.

Restrictions, lockdowns and other response measures to the COVID-19 pandemic have boosted people’s already-growing online presence, interactions and reliance on digital services. This connective technology holds enormous potential for empowering women and girls; it expands access to public services, creates opportunities for education and skills development, enables social engagement at a distance, provides a wealth of entertainment and open doors to employment and entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, it can also lead to cyberviolence - harms such as bullying, harassment, loss of privacy and direct violence - especially against women and girls who are just crossing the digital divide. These risks need to be eliminated so that women and girls have equal access to and use of digital tools and can equally benefit from growth in the digital economy.

The guide has been produced by UN Women and UNICEF under the joint UN project ‘Accelerating Women’s Empowerment for Economic Resilience and Renewal: The post-COVID-19 reboot in Armenia’, implemented by UNDP, UNIDO, UNICEF and UN Women.