Advances in digital technologies and globalization have profoundly transformed human interactions, enabling rapid communication and information sharing across borders. However, these technologies also present risks, particularly in facilitating violence against women and girls (VAWG). Technology-facilitated VAWG (TF VAWG) encompasses both traditional forms of abuse amplified by technology and entirely new forms emerging in digital spaces, operating across social media, messaging platforms, emails, and smart devices. These forms of violence, including cyberstalking, doxing, non-consensual intimate image abuse, deepfakes, and unwanted digital communications, often extend into offline harm, such as monitoring and controlling women’s movements through connected devices.
The Compendium of Emerging Practices on TF VAWG collects and organizes global approaches to prevent and respond to this violence, drawing from governments, civil society, UN entities, and technology companies. Developed in collaboration with experts and the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI), it provides a nuanced understanding of trends and contextual differences in addressing TF VAWG. The Compendium emphasizes multistakeholder collaboration and comprehensive frameworks as essential for effective prevention, protection, and accountability, serving as a tool for policymakers, advocates, and practitioners to strengthen responses to digital violence.
The Compendium highlights the evolving global and regional normative frameworks recognizing TF VAWG as part of the broader continuum of gender-based violence. Early instruments, such as the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, laid the groundwork for considering digital harms in women’s rights, while more recent frameworks explicitly integrate TF VAWG into human rights and digital governance agendas. National legal and policy responses have expanded, with countries adopting comprehensive VAWG legislation, targeted laws for specific digital harms, and broader cybercrime or online safety measures, though implementation remains uneven.
Preventing TF VAWG focuses on addressing underlying drivers, such as gender inequality, harmful norms, and power imbalances, while reshaping digital environments to be safer and more inclusive. Emerging prevention efforts include advocacy and awareness campaigns, educational and digital literacy programs, and technology-based solutions designed with safety and empowerment in mind. Evidence from traditional VAWG prevention strategies informs these approaches, although research specific to TF VAWG perpetrators and motivations is ongoing to guide more effective interventions.
Response mechanisms have similarly evolved, with national governments, civil society, and technology companies investing in victim-survivor support, accountability, and institutional capacity building. Trends include expanding psychosocial, legal, health, and digital safety services; developing digital reporting and content removal tools; adopting specialized law enforcement measures, particularly for minors; and fostering cross-border and multistakeholder collaboration. Despite these advances, many responses remain fragmented, voluntary, or under-resourced, with gaps in accessibility, enforcement, and platform accountability, particularly affecting marginalized communities.
The Compendium underscores the need for sustained, coordinated action to address TF VAWG in a rapidly evolving digital environment. Key recommendations include adopting harmonized global definitions and standards for TF VAWG, creating inclusive and survivor-centered legal and policy frameworks, and translating these standards into context-specific regulations. Such measures are critical to ensuring coherent cooperation, consistent protections, and effective monitoring and accountability, while supporting safer digital spaces for women and girls worldwide.
