Opening event of the project "Click-off! Stop cyber violence against women and girls"
The opening event of the EU project ‘Click-off! Stop cyber violence against women and girls’ was held at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, Centre for Social Informatics (CSI) on 23 November. The project, which addresses cyber violence and harassment of girls and women, is co-financed by the EC Directorate – General Justice and Consumers and coordinated by the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the Republic of Slovenia, in cooperation with the CSI, the Ministry of the Interior – Police and the Ministry of Justice – Judicial Training Centre. The project started on 1 July 2017 and will end on 31 December 2019.
The purpose of the opening event was to present the current situation concerning cyber violence and harassment based on sex; to provide an overview of the existing legal solutions, concrete practices and mechanisms to prevent such violence and help victims; and to ask what else can be done to increase security on the internet for everyone, but especially women and girls.
In the opening address, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Martina Vuk, said, ‘Violence against women as gender-based violence is structural in nature and is associated with the unequal distribution of power among women and men in society, and with sexism and sexual stereotypes. Research has shown that certain roles and patterns of behaviour among women and men contribute to making violence against women acceptable. How rooted a "culture of tolerance and denial" can be in a given environment has also been shown by the recent but rather classic examples of sexual harassment and violence in Hollywood. These examples clearly show that longstanding silence on the part of the victims was the result of the victims knowing that no one would stand by them if they reported on important influencers who exploited their power and influence for sexual harassment and violence. Many others who had the power to change something knew about this but kept silent. However, in light of the #metoo social media campaign, which triggered the raft of accusations and subsequent public condemnation of such acts, there is also the hope that the victims can connect and jointly oppose this kind of behaviour in public, thereby changing the perceptions and attitudes of society.’
Dr. Barbara Brečko of the CSI presented the latest results of the Amnesty International survey on online violence against women.
More information about the project and the event is available here.