OUR COLLECTIVE STORY: 10 YEARS OF TAKING ACTION ON TECHNOLOGY AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE


How have internet technologies changed in the past decade? How have these changes affected the way we engage, relate, organise and take action?
 
Take Back the Tech! started as the seed of an idea in 2006, recognising the need to reclaim women's historical contribution to technology development and to counter the growing expression of gender-based violence through information and communications technologies (ICTs).

Strengthen solidarity


25 November - 10 December, 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

STRENGTHEN SOLIDARITY: SHARE YOUR STRATEGIES FOR COUNTERING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

The issue of technology-related violence against women and girls has reached the mainstream. Finally, media outlets are writing about it, state actors are debating it and internet platforms are exploring ways to address it. But the most important conversation is happening between women who engage with the internet and those who have faced such violence. The most valuable insights and ideas come from you.

DAY 8 | INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE | MAKING PRIVATE VIOLENCE PUBLIC

For many years, the right to privacy was imagined to only apply to men who had control over the domain of their household. Violence that took place in the home was seen as a private matter, and it took decades of organising and advocacy by women’s movements in different parts of the world to put domestic violence as an issue of public interest. 
 
Violence in the home is violence in the community, however.

Day 14 | Rights under attack: Violence targetting communities | Map it. End it. Demand change

Even as the internet opens up new spaces for public and political engagement for women and girls,  their rights come under attack. Women's rights activists and feminists have had their websites hacked, faced hate-speech and targetted harassment. These are seldom monitored in internet rights spaces. Defend our right to communicate freely and safely online. Map it. Make it visible. And demand for change.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion centred the importance of the internet in enabling a broad range of human rights. We have seen this through the multiple, strategic and creative ways that feminist and human rights activists have mobilised for action through online spaces.

Day 11 | Sexual assault, rape & human rights | Map it. End it. Demand change.

Rape and sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes in the world mainly due to shame, stigma and trauma Victims are often blamed for somehow "provoking" the violence, subjected to intense interrogation, and repeated violation of their rights. We are all responsible for defining the spaces we occupy - both online, offline and political.

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Rape and sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes in the world. According to the UN, estimates of reported cases range from only 3% out of all rape cases in South Africa, to 16% of all rape cases in United States. This means that out of 100 women who are raped, up to 97 of them are keeping silent about the violation.