30
Oct 2020
The line between online and offline
Gender-Based Violence is so thin to the extent that the negative impact is most
likely to cause similar trends of harm to the victims of such abuse.
It is an undisputed fact that the
Internet and any other forms of technology aid people to realize their online rights
such as the access to information although these very resources have been
exploited by various perpetrators to harm or threaten women and girls.
According to the World Health Organisation, at least 35% of women and girls
worldwide have faced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or
non-partner sexual violence. However, it is worth noting that violence against
women seems to have taken a shift from an offline to an online form. In fact, the United Nations (U.N.) in a study about
online gender-based violence against women highlights that 95% of aggressive
behavior, harassment, abusive language, and denigrating images in online spaces
from partners or former male partners.
Over the years, Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) has been creating
awareness about the harmful, intimating, and deterrent nature of technology
related violence on women rights online
and building capacity of women and young girls, policymakers, and law
enforcement officers to reduce the rate of technology-related violence
experienced by women which affect their fundamental internet rights and
freedoms of expression.
On many occasions, WOUGNET has been privileged to run diverse campaigns and several initiatives with support from Take Back the Tech, Association for Progressive Communications (APC). Due to the increasing use of tech highly caused by COVID-19 pandemic, the organization under the All Women Count - Take Back The Tech (AWC-TBTT) project supported Women of Uganda Network to empower women and young girls through smart media technology to identify, develop and amplify the mechanism for tackling online gender-based violence in Uganda. As a result of its support, WOUGNET created feminist audios, animated videos, and images to enable communities to respond to the online gender-based violence. Additionally, WOUGNET created awareness and popularized simple action behaviors to prevent online GBV in Uganda.
It is upon these revelations that Women
of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) found it pertinent to schedule the Virtual
Conference on Online Gender-Based Violence in Uganda on the 28th
October, 2020. The conference was to
provide a platform for victims or survivors to share their experiences and also
for Women’s Rights Defenders in the digital age to deliberate on strategies and
measures that can be adopted to eliminate this form of injustice. The two
hours’ conference had diverse panelist championing the women’s rights offline
and online including Twasiima Patricia Bigirwa, the Feminist Lawyer and Women’s
Economic Justice Lead with Akina Mama Wa Afrika; Jimmy Haguma, the Chief
Security Officer at the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC); Lindsey
Kukunda, the Founder of Not Your Body, and Dr. Bridget Harris, the Senior
Researcher in the School of Justice, Digital Media Research Centre, and Centre
for Justice at the Queensland University of Technology. The session was moderated
by Sandra Aceng, the Program Manager, Information Sharing and Networking at
WOUGNET.
Online gender-based violence is deeply
rooted because most societies in Uganda and the world are still patriarchally
dominated in their setup. Lindsey Kukunda in a tweet argued that “The internet is a mirror of how society grooms boys and men to view
women as inferior, and highlights the tendencies to abuse and violate rights
and safety of women.” Perpetrators of online violence against women as
explained by Dr. Bridget Harris may fall into different three major categories;
Firstly, those that are known to the victim for example intimate partners,
those that people may know especially from social media or dating site
suggestions and finally those that are unknown to the victims. She further
reiterates that it is a common trend in Australia and the rest of the world for
online violence women to be orchestrated by people they have a social
connection with.
Often times as explained by Patricia
Bigirwa, victims, or even perpetrators have not been sensitized and are
therefore not aware of what forms of Online Gender-Based Violence manifest
itself. This perhaps partly accounts for a number of these harassment cases.
Furthermore, Dr. Bridget Harris mentioned some of the forms of online Gender
Based on Violence such as stalking,
impersonation, doxing, non-consensual distribution of intimate images,
manipulating bank accounts online, impersonation, phishing, and abusive
communication. Lindsey Kukunda shared her experience with abusive communication
when she called out a bar for being racist when its workers barred her from
checking in. Her action attracted hostility and abusive comments over the radio
where certain individuals claimed she even had an inferiority complex. She was
however grateful for the fact that the Bar now has a “No racism allowed here” poster which is a clear indication of how important it is to stand and speak up
against all sorts of violence.
It was evident from the discussions
that the furtherance of online harassment against women and girls has been
greatly hinged on the inefficiencies in Uganda’s legal system. In this regard,
Jimmy Haguma referred the participants to the Computer Misuse Act of 2011 which was essentially passed by the
Uganda Parliament to curb cyber harassment. Under this act, a perpetrator
cannot be held accountable for his/her actions at the first instance but must
have rather harassed the victim/s repeatedly. This is a loophole in the law as
many perpetrators are set free while victims live on with both physical and
psychological effects emanating from this kind of violence. Also, the
Anti-Pornography Act of 2014 which criminalizes the non-consensual distribution
of intimate images seems to focus more on penalizing the victims instead of the
perpetrators that share them. Patricia Twasiima argues that “Where
victims would have turned to the law to protect them, it instead persecutes
them.”
When asked whether the law has failed
to work for women because they do not know much about it, Patricia argued that “The law doesn’t work for women not because they do not know the law. The Law does
not work for because it was designed not to.” The nature of most of
our laws clearly calls for either amendment by parliament or rather
nullification of such provisions which are Unconstitutional. Lindsey Kukunda
adds that “This abuse is unchecked,
unmonitored by the Government or Police & victims/survivors of 'revenge
porn' are instead, prosecuted.” This only breeds a cyberspace where women
unlike men do not freely express themselves online on the basis that they have
been or could be harassed.
The media has equally been criticized
for the insensitive manner in which it reports on matters concerning Online Gender
Based Violence. Often times, the media will openly criticize and focus on
shaming victims of online harassment who are majorly women instead of the
perpetrators. A clear example of this practice by media houses can be seen from
an article titled “Sheebah’s Naked Pictures Flop” published on 27th
February 2015 by the Red Pepper Newspaper where the writer shamelessly stated
that “The poor quality of the nudes is to
blame for them being stuck on people’s phones since they cannot induce any
boners in men.” This is an indication that online Gender-based violence
against women and girls in society is a creature of Patriarchy.
It is important to note online violence
against women may have adverse effects on the wellbeing, security, and safety of
victims as highlighted by Dr. Bridget Harris. Considering and assessing the
impact of online violence enables all stakeholders like Parliament, the
Judiciary, Social Media Sites, and Civil Society Organisations to come up with
effective measures to end this dangerous vice. If not stopped, online violence
against women may translate into physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, and
financial distress as hinted at by Dr. Harris. Such effects should influence
what kind of sanctions the law and the Judges place upon perpetrators as a
means of ensuring that victims attain justice.
As a way forward, Patricia Twasiima
suggested that Judges and Uganda Police officials ought to be given training
on Online Gender-Based Violence. As the Custodians of Justice, it is only
important that Judicial officers and law enforcers are well acquainted with
knowledge or skills to use while investigating and making judgments in
reported cases of online violence against women. Lindsey further recommended
that women should have different passwords for all their accounts on digital
platforms. This improves the account security of women while using the internet
since having the same passwords may grant the perpetrator access to most or all
the victims’ accounts. Additionally, the law needs to be amended so as to give
victims and survivors justice while the perpetrator is sanctioned accordingly.
Last but not least, journalists should be trained and sensitized on how to
report cases of online gender-based violence without causing more trauma to the
victims.
WOUGNET firmly contends and reemphasizes
that as an organization, it will always be on top of its agenda to ensure that
it stands at the forefront of the campaign to achieve gender-sensitive legal,
cultural and structural reforms as a means to address online gender-based
violence and promote women’s rights online.
Written
by:
Iribagiza
David – Communications Intern
