A hand holding a phone with apps./ PHOTO; Pexel
UN Women is calling for urgent action to end digital violence against women and girls worldwide in commemoration of this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) campaign.
The organisation is emphasizing the pressing need for global measures to close legal gaps and hold both perpetrators and tech platforms accountable.
The 16 Days of Activism is a global campaign led by UN Women under the UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative.
Running each year from 25 November to 10 December, it connects the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women with Human Rights Day.
In 2025, the campaign focuses on ending digital violence against women and girls, one of the fastest-evolving forms of abuse worldwide.
Digital violence includes online harassment, stalking, gendered disinformation, deepfakes, and non-consensual sharing of intimate images, all of which are rising sharply as technology advances.
According to World Bank data, fewer than 40% of countries have laws protecting women from cyber harassment or cyberstalking, leaving 44% of the world’s women and girls, about 1.8 billion, without legal protection.
Women in leadership, business, and politics are particularly targeted with deepfakes, coordinated harassment, and disinformation designed to push them offline.
Globally, one in four women journalists reports online threats of physical violence, including death threats.
“What begins online doesn’t stay online. Digital abuse spills into real life, spreading fear, silencing voices, and in the worst cases, leading to physical violence and femicide,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.
“Laws must evolve with technology to ensure that justice protects women both online and offline. Weak legal protections leave millions of women and girls vulnerable, while perpetrators act with impunity. This is unacceptable. Through our 16 Days of Activism campaign, UN Women calls for a world where technology serves equality, not harm.”
While the problem is urgent, there are signs of progress.
Governments are beginning to respond: the UK’s Online Safety Act, Mexico’s Ley Olimpia, Australia’s Online Safety Act, and the EU’s Digital Safety Act show how legislation can adapt to technological threats.
By 2025, 117 countries reported efforts to address digital violence, though enforcement remains inconsistent across borders.
The 2025 UNiTE campaign calls on governments, technology companies, and communities to act now to strengthen laws, end impunity, and hold platforms accountable.
It emphasizes the need for sustained investment in prevention, digital literacy, and survivor-centered services.
Long-term support for women’s rights organizations leading efforts to make digital spaces safe and inclusive is also critical.
UN Women is calling for coordinated action:
- Global cooperation to ensure digital platforms and AI tools meet safety and ethical standards.
- Support for survivors through funding women’s rights organizations.
- Accountability for perpetrators through stronger laws and enforcement.
- Tech companies to take action by hiring more women, creating safer online spaces, removing harmful content promptly, and responding effectively to reports of abuse.
- Investments in prevention and culture change through digital literacy, online safety training for women and girls, and programs challenging toxic online cultures.
Feminist advocacy has helped elevate digital violence as a threat to fundamental human rights. Yet shrinking civic space, funding cuts, and pushback against feminist movements threaten decades of progress. In this context, initiatives such as the EU-funded ACT to End Violence against Women and Girls programme remain crucial in supporting feminist movements and ensuring justice for survivors worldwide.
In regards to this years theme and to support governments and policymakers, UN Women is launching two new tools the Supplement to the Handbook for Legislation on Violence against Women on Technology-facilitated violence against women and girls and the Guide for Police on Addressing Technology-Facilitated Violence, which complements previous guidance for police on addressing violence against women and girls from the Handbook on Gender-Responsive Police Services for Women and Girls Subject to Violence providing practical guidance for prevention and response.
Until the digital space is safe for all women and girls, true equality will remain out of reach, everywhere.
About ACT
The Advocacy, Coalition Building and Transformative Feminist Action (ACT) programme is a commitment between the European Commission and UN Women as co-leaders of the Action Coalition on Gender Based Violence (GBV), in collaboration with the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women.
The ACT shared advocacy agenda is elevating the priorities and amplifying the voices of feminist women’s rights movements and providing a collaborative framework focused on common priorities, strategies, and actions.
About UN Women
UN Women exists to advance women’s rights, gender equality, and the empowerment of all women and girls.
As the lead UN entity on gender equality, we shift laws, institutions, social behaviour, and services to close the gender gap and build an equal world for all women and girls.
We keep the rights of women and girls at the centre of global progress, always, everywhere. Because gender equality is not just what we do. It is who we are.
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