Quote:

---

Given the amount of harassment and abusive behavior that women are subjected to every day, it is hardly surprising that women are also victimized online as well. It is probably fair to say that because of the nature of the web, in many ways it is easier to be abusive online than off. People who might not have the nerve to threaten you in person feel safer in doing so online when they can hide behind screen names and phony email addresses.

The UN estimates that 95% of aggressive behavior, harassment, abusive language and degrading images in online spaces are aimed at women.

---

Quote:

---

The United Nations estimates that 95% of aggressive behaviour, harassment, abusive language and denigrating images in online spaces are aimed at women and come from partners or former male partners. Other surveys show that the victims of cyber-stalking are predominantly female.

Many popular social networking websites include personal information such as email addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, names of family members, and even minute-to-minute updates on a person’s location, which is useful to friends but could also act as a source of information for perpetrators of violence.

To this end, APC Women and Inter Press Service Africa are co-hosting a media roundtable entitled ‘Click Against Violence: Taking 16 Days of Activism Online’, to discuss online Gender Based Violence and resources available to cover the issue.

---

Quote:

---

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign uses the 16 days between International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (25 November) and International Human Rights Day (10 December) to reinforce that eliminating all forms of violence against women is a human rights issue and that the act of perpetrating violence against women is a human rights violation. The 16 Days Campaign brings the human rights framework to the heart of its work and utilizes it to ensure that both state and non-state actors are held accountable for acts of violence against women.

November 25th was declared International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women at the first Feminist Encuentro for Latin America and the Caribbean held in Bogota, Colombia, July 18-21, 1981. The “feminist encuentros” are conferences of feminists from Latin America who come together every 2-3 years in a different Latin American country in order to exchange experiences and to reflect upon the state of the women’s movement. At that first Encuentro, women systematically denounced all forms of gender violence from domestic battery to rape and sexual harassment to state violence including torture and abuse of women political prisoners. November 25th was chosen to commemorate the violent assassination of the Mirabal sisters (Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa) on November 25, 1960 by the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. In 1999, the United Nations officially recognized November 25th as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

About this year’s theme:

This year marks the 20th 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, and with this important landmark, the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) is considering new ways to utilize the campaign for transformative change. Year after year, new partners join the 16 Days Campaign to bring local, national, and global attention to the various forms of violence that women face. The attention that gender-based violence has received in international forums is a testimony to the powerful actions of women’s rights activists around the world. Yet, despite this increased awareness, women continue to experience violations in alarming numbers and new forms of violence are emerging. We, as defenders of women’s human rights, have a responsibility to look more closely at the structures in place that permit gender-based violence to exist and persist. After much consultation with activists, organizations, and experts from around the world, militarism has emerged as one of the key structures that perpetuates violence.

---

Quote:

---

There's also a certain level of female-to-female nastiness I can offer no rational explaination for

---