Technology is playing key role in gender equality reversals, says UN chief

Many advocates were also ready with proposed solutions to the problems they named. Alison Brown, president of the International Alliance of Women, raised the idea of a neutral global internet to help protect human rights and promote women’s access to online spaces.  

“One global free internet for everybody” is a key objective of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the Secretary-General emphasized, also stressing the importance of increased digital literacy and online governance: “We need to have some mechanism that creates guardrails that do not put into question freedom of expression but protect namely women from the kinds of vicious harassment and bullying that we are now seeing on the internet,” he said.  

Eleanor Nwadinobi, President of the Medical Women’s International Association, tied the issue of violence against women and girls to the COVID-19 pandemic and wider global health concerns, saying: “The time has come for us to stop putting in silos the different issues that affect women and girls, including cyber violence.” Linda Wilson, a delegate of the Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, echoed this call, emphasizing the offline impacts of technology-facilitated gender-based violence and asking the Secretary-General’s advice on how to make governments more accountable on the issue.