FOC Advisory Network Proactive Advice: UN CSW69

The Freedom Online Coalition Advisory Network (FOC-AN) is an independent multistakeholder group composed of civil society, academia, technical community, and private sector representatives who provide advice on aims, objectives and activities of the Freedom Online Coalition, as well as support its mission of advancing Internet freedom and human rights online. The Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) is an intergovernmental coalition of 42 Member States committed to ensuring that the Internet and digital technologies reinforce human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

The advice is developed independently by the the FOC-AN cohort, and is not a statement on behalf of FOC Member States.

The following proactive advice serves to inform FOC Members, and their respective delegations, on priority themes that should be included in the Agreed Conclusions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women sixty-ninth session (CSW69). 

Introduction

The United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. The 69th session of the CSW (CSW69) will take place from March 10 to 21, 2025. The main focus of this edition will be the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly. The review will include an assessment of current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women, as well as its contribution towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This proactive advice is informed by the Freedom Online Coalition Advisory Network (FOC-AN) Members following and participating in the upcoming CSW69. The advice identifies challenges and provides recommendations for FOC Member States on CSW67. We encourage FOC Members to build and use past statements to inform FOC engagement in CSW69 and their respective delegations to contact FOC-AN members for further consultation ahead of and during the session. 

Challenges

The Beijing Declaration remains one of the few human rights instruments that governments worldwide still actively follow and report on. However, this historic document was crafted in a pre-Internet era. While its fundamental principles remain valid, the Declaration needs to address the profound ways technology has transformed how we live, work, and interact. We identify several critical challenges in the path to gender equality and justice that were not imaginable when the Beijing Declaration was first written:

1. Gender digital divides: digital divides often reflect and reinforce existing social and economic inequalities, as noted by the FOC Joint Statement on Digital Inclusion (2020). There is a vicious circle connecting gender inequality and the gender digital divides – gender inequality contributes to the digital divides, and the digital divides worsen gender inequality. Traditional gender roles and power dynamics have evolved into digital gatekeeping, creating significant barriers to women’s inclusion in technology, perpetuating a persistent gender divide, and resulting in the disproportionate number of women who remain unconnected to the internet. Affordability of essential resources – especially in regions where men control household finances – along with lack of digital literacy, language barriers, geographic limitations, and infrastructural challenges, all contribute to the barriers preventing women from fully exercising their human rights. Addressing the gender digital divide is crucial in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 5 on gender equality and empowerment for all women and girls. 

2. Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV): online spaces have become new battlegrounds for gender-based violence; from cyberstalking to digital harassment, women and people of diverse gender identities, expressions, and sexualities face persistent threats that can have severe real-world consequences. There are many manifestations of TFGBV -such as doxxing, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, sexualised deep fakes- and these manifestations change as digital technologies continue to evolve. As CSW67 Agreed Conclusions state, TFGBV causes significant harm to women and girls, throughout their life course, infringing on their rights and freedoms, in particular for those in public life¹ and, as the FOC stated, in its FOC Joint Statement on Defending Civic Space (2019), women [and gender diverse] human rights defenders are especially at risk. As with GBV, addressing TFGBV demands multilayered and multistakeholder initiatives. 

3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) concerns: as outlined in the FOC Joint Statement on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights (2020), the use and deployment of AI systems in ways that violate human rights further marginalize and oppress persons or groups, such as women, people of diverse gender identities, expressions, and sexualities, and members of communities that already face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. The rise of AI has brought new gender digital threats, particularly related to the use of deep-fakes and synthetic media; these technologies are increasingly being weaponized to create non-consensual intimate content, spread disinformation, and harass women online. Bias in AI systems and applications reinforces and perpetuates intersectional gender discrimination and inequality. 

4. Targeted surveillance and state-backed intimidation: advanced surveillance technologies are being used to monitor and control women’s activities, particularly targeting journalists and women rights defenders; this creates a chilling effect that impacts on gender diverse people and women’s freedom of expression and public participation.  These technologies pose particular risks to queer and trans women, especially but not only  in contexts where open expressions of LGBTQIA+ identities are not legal. Furthermore, the impact of targeted surveillance tools such as spyware on women and gender diverse persons can be particularly grievous, given the political, societal, and gender power asymmetries that embolden State authorities to weaponize the information they extract from a target’s device through defamation, blackmail, and doxxing. As stated by the FOC in the Guiding Principles on Governments Use of Surveillance Technologies, “governments should not use these surveillance technologies to unjustifiably interfere with freedom of expression; discourage the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms; perpetrate TFGBV  or discrimination online and offline.” In addition, and as expressed by the FOC in the Joint Statement on Internet Censorship (2018), individuals who may face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including women and girls, can face disproportionate levels of censorship and punishment due to the introduction of legal frameworks. For example, cyber-related laws drafted in a broad manner and without applying a gender perspective can be used to silence and criminalise women. 

The path forward requires collaboration between governments, civil society organizations, technology companies, and communities to create a digital world that truly works for the benefit of everyone, including women and girls in all their diversity. While technology can amplify existing inequalities, it can also be a powerful tool for advancing gender equality – if gender perspectives are incorporated into norms, policies, and frameworks.

Recommendations

In view of these opportunities, the FOC-AN offers the following recommendations for FOC member governments on the CSW69: 

1. Gender digital divide

  • Ensure meaningful access for women and gender-diverse communities, addressing the variety of forms of digital divides, such as affordability, digital skills, and continuous access, as well as accessibility for people with disabilities.
  • Provide access that enhances the human rights to privacy, anonymity, security and safety. 
  • Prioritise investments in digital infrastructure to ensure that all women, particularly those in rural and underserved areas, have access to reliable internet connectivity and digital devices. 
  • Explore complementary access solutions, such as community networks, for connecting the unconnected.
  • Mainstream a gender perspective in digital connectivity strategies, as stated in the Global Digital Compact. Improve transparency and accountability in the execution of connectivity policies and involve communities in evaluating their implementation.
  • Implement digital literacy programs, focusing on the use of digital devices, security, and privacy, while conducting periodic evaluations of the training needs of vulnerable groups.
  • Implement measures to increase the participation and representation of women across all levels of the technology sector and their governance, including infrastructure planning and regulation, and technology development. These measures should include the promotion and support of women and girls studying and working in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
  • Repeal laws and end practices that enable the restriction and curtailment of internet access, including internet shutdowns and communication blackouts.

2.  Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV)

  • Recognize TFGBV as gender-based violence. Work with civil society and academia to elaborate on and further develop a comprehensive definition of TFGBV which reflects both the continuum of violence and the common root causes such as gendered and other forms of power inequality, as well as the particular experiences of victims/survivors.
  • Update laws to address online harassment and tech-facilitated gender-based violence, with express safeguards so that these laws do not inadvertently restrict rights, ensuring that these frameworks center women and gender diverse people’s rights, agency, and autonomy.  Integrate efforts to address TFGBV into broader gender based violence frameworks. 
  • Hold digital platforms accountable for their role in facilitating and amplifying TFGBV and call on companies to adopt concrete measures to respond to these forms of violence, including publishing gender disaggregated transparency reports on the prevalence and effectiveness of their content moderation policies
  • Generate and collect data on the prevalence of TFGBV, by developing indicators within national surveys, ensuring consistent and comparable statistics across countries. 
  • Promote safety and privacy-by-design developments by tech companies
  • Provide adequate funding and resources to ensure that victims/survivors of TFGVBV have access to a variety of options that are victim/survivor-centred, when seeking support, including legal and non-legal responses.²
  • Cooperate to counter the proliferation of malicious ICT tools and harmful hidden technological features used in context of TFGBV
  • Provide support and funding to local and national civil society working on gender, technology and digital rights. Civil society plays a vital role in advocating for women’s rights, addressing gaps in legal protections, and providing support to survivors of digital abuse. Funding, capacity building, and partnerships with civil society organizations can enhance their effectiveness and impact.

3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

  • Promote the use of diverse and representative data sets to train AI systems and ensure AI development and research teams are diverse and inclusive to avoid blind spots. 
  • Improve the transparency of algorithms in AI systems.
  • Ensure that the design, development and use of AI systems in the public sector is conducted in accordance with their human rights obligations, emphasising transparency and non-discrimination. 
  • Adopt strong human rights frameworks for AI systems and implement human rights AI impact assessments when procuring, developing and using AI systems in the public sector.³
  • Expressly call for the ban of applications that cannot be operated in compliance with international human rights law and impose moratoriums on the sale and use of AI systems that carry a high risk for the enjoyment of human rights unless and until adequate safeguards to protect human rights are in place.
  • Promote and support the participation and representation of women in all their diversity including in governance processes related to AI at national and international levels. 
  • Conduct intersectional gender analysis of the social and economic impact of AI uptake and provide programmes and material supports to address labour market displacement. 

4. Targeted surveillance and state-backed intimidation

  • Consider legality, necessity, and proportionality criteria when engaging in lawful surveillance practices – including for the prosecution of perpetrators of GBV. 
  • Any measures regarding disinformation should be implemented in a manner that complies with international human rights law. 
  • Public authorities should be held accountable for any form of violent or defamatory speech against women and gender and sexually diverse leaders, human rights defenders and opinion-makers.
  • Promote gender mainstreaming in cybersecurity and cybercrime frameworks. 
  • Promote women and people of diverse gender identities, expressions, and sexualities rights online, including taking active steps to address disinformation targeted at vulnerable groups, acknowledging, in particular, the specific targeting of and impact on women.⁴ Promote women and people of diverse gender identities, expressions, and sexualities’ reproductive rights online, including access to information about reproductive health care and medical/health-tracking data privacy.
  • Promote strong encryption and anonymity, essential tools to empower and protect groups at risk, specifically sexual and gender rights activists,  and refrain from measures that weaken or interfere with them. 

In all of these areas, states should allow for multistakeholder inclusive processes for digital policy. States should promote the participation and leadership of women in the technology sector, including in the design and development of technology, as well as in its governance and decision-making processes at national and international levels. Ensuring the meaningful involvement of women and people of diverse gender identities, expressions, and sexualities in digital policy and decision making will help address the issues impacting their rights online. Furthermore, a gender intersectional perspective should be mainstreamed into the conceptualization, development and implementation of digital technologies and their related policies. 

Resources

Footnotes

  1. CSW67 Agreed Conclusions (E/CN.6/2023/L.3)
  2. Supporting Safer Digital Spaces. https://www.cigionline.org/programs/supporting-safer-digital-spaces/ and  Global Call to Action to Address Technology-facilitated Gender-based Violence https://www.unfpa.org/resources/global-call-action-address-TFGBV
  3.  FOC Joint Statement on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights (2020).
  4.  FOC Joint Statement on Spread of Disinformation Online (2020)

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