Women Human Rights Defenders Address Digital Violence During the 16 Days of Activism
Today marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and the start of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, an annual global campaign that ends on December 10, International Human Rights Day.
This year’s theme, “UNiTE to End Digital Violence,” highlights how systems meant to combat online abuse are failing. According to UN Women, between 16 and 58 percent of women worldwide have experienced some form of digital violence, yet fewer than 40 percent of countries have laws against cyber-harassment.
Bahraini human rights activist Mariam Al-Khawaja has faced digital and physical harassment for many years, even while living in exile in Denmark. She described a familiar paradox: “the tools we are using as activists, as a method of trying to make change in the country, were also being used by the government against us.” Some of the attacks against her are explicitly gendered. Sexualized rumours and accusations of promiscuity are circulated online to tarnish her reputation.
Another women’s rights activist from Xinjiang reported that the harassment she faced was so overwhelming that she began turning off the comment sections. While this helped block coordinated trolling, it also limited engagement with genuine participants who wanted to learn from her work.
Meron Estefanos, an Eritrean human rights activist, also faces relentless online abuse. She receives hundreds of misogynistic messages, including attacks questioning her parental ability. The harassment spikes whenever she exposes human trafficking networks or the Eritrean government’s repression.
These are just a few examples of what Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) experience around the world: digital attacks driven both by their activism and gender, targeted for what they do and for who they are.
The UN has recognized this pattern. Women activists, journalists, lawyers, and public figures are targeted with gendered disinformation, deepfakes, and coordinated harassment campaigns to shame them out of public life. UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous has warned that these online attacks often escalate into real-world harassment and physical violence.
In April, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution acknowledging that WHRDs face disproportionate levels of online violence. It documents rising sexual and gender-based abuse, defamation, disinformation, and smear campaigns, as well as digital attacks including doxxing, deepfakes, fabricated or stolen intimate images, and cyberstalking.
In a study by Citizen Lab, WHRDs described targeted sexual slurs, harassment, and vulgar comments on social media platforms. Many received messages with detailed sexual fantasies and unsolicited images of male genitalia. Others had fake nude photographs of themselves circulated online to undermine their credibility.
Earlier this month, UNESCO marked the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists with a focus on AI-enabled gender-based violence targeting women reporters. Land and climate defenders report similar patterns. A recent investigation found that nine in ten activists surveyed had faced online abuse, often escalating during periods of political tension.
In some regions, defenders are being pushed out of digital spaces. Sudanese activists report retreating from social media and shifting to offline strategies to avoid harassment and digital attacks. In India, women increasingly say they stay offline because of fears of deepfakes and “nudify” applications that can generate fabricated sexual images.
Human Rights First works with WHRDs in many countries, including with those exposing corruption, delivering humanitarian aid, or helping asylum seekers. We know the risks they take and how threatening online targeting can be.
Human Rights First is also part of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, a global network supporting WHRDs facing harassment, threats, surveillance, arbitrary detention and other forms of retaliation. Through this coalition and our own Human Rights Defenders program, we document attacks on WHRDs and work toward their protection.
Laws must be designed with direct participation from WHRDs, feminist organizations, and digital rights advocates, and they must be rigorously enforced. Technology companies must build safer platforms, remove harmful content quickly, and embed accountability into AI design. Complaints need to be handled consistently, seriously, and immediately.
These next 16 days will draw global attention to the issue, but protecting WHRDs online is an issue that governments and companies must address every day of every year.
