[Brussels, 2 September 2017] #HerNetHerRights is a project led by the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) to analyse the current state of online violence against women and girls in Europe and come up with innovative solutions and policy recommendations to fight online male violence and create a safer, more inclusive web for all women and girls.

Funded by Google, the project takes stock of the reality of online violence against women and girls through a report and thanks to the contribution of EWL members and other key stakeholders. The EWL #HerNetHerRights Resource Pack, which will be launched on 25 November, will also include an activist tool kit to know one’s rights and develop strategies to resist to and combat abusers online and bring structural change.

On 13 October 2017, and in the framework of the European Week of Action for Girls, we organised an here to get a fantastic summary of the online conference and the tweetchat, thanks to a Storify presentation. The blog #NewMediaActivism has also issued a dynamic article about the online conference; you can find it here. You can also read the article “Young women mobilise against ‘revenge porn’ and online abuse” based on our online conference.

And here is the video of the online conference, if you haven’t been able to follow us live on 13 October.

9h30-11h – Online Conference #HerNetHerRights

Moderator: Pierrette Pape, Policy & Campaigns Director, European Women’s Lobby

• Alexandra Hache, PhD, Spain, Project Coordinator at TacticalTech, will discuss the different forms of online violence and paradigms of analysis At Tactical Tech, Alex coordinates the project “Securing Online and Offline Freedoms for Women: Expression, Privacy and Digital Inclusion.” She is a sociologist and a researcher on ICT for the public good, and holds a PhD in social economy. For the last decade, she has been involved in the development of cyberfeminist collectives and technological sovereignty initiatives for social and political transformation within neighbourhood communities, engaged research networks, social movements and women’s groups.

• Elisabeth Kate Mc Guinness is a research assistant at the European Institute for Gender Equality where she co-wrote the 2017 report on cyber violence against women and girls. She holds a Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation with a specialisation in Gender Relations. Her interests include image-based abuse, ‘redpilling,’ and reproductive rights.’

• Nicole Shephard, PhD, UK, will talk about the feminist implications of big data and privacy, and is an independent researcher, writer and consultant interested in the intersections between gender and technology. Her work takes a feminist perspective on the politics of data, privacy and surveillance. She holds a PhD in Gender (LSE) and an MSc in International Development (University of Bristol). Follow her on Twitter.

• Emma Holten, Danish activist and revenge porn survivor, on her experience and strategies is an online human rights activist and editor at Friktion Magasin. After being a victim of non-consensual pornography in 2011, she became aware of the pitfalls of structural oppression and gendered online violence. This led to the activist project CONSENT, which became a viral success. She speaks on the democratic importance of an internet free of harassment and violations of privacy if we want to achieve full freedom of speech. She is 26 years old and lives in Copenhagen.

• Lie Junius, Director Public Policy and Government Relations, Google Belgium, on their work to combat online violence against women and girls ​ ​joined​ ​Google​ ​in​ ​November​ ​2015​ ​when​ ​she​ ​was​ ​appointed​ ​the​ ​new​ ​Director​ ​of​ ​Public Policy​ ​and​ ​Government​ ​Relations​ ​in​ ​Brussels.​ ​She​ ​has​ ​more​ ​than​ ​twenty​ ​years​ ​of​ ​European and​ ​international​ ​public​ ​affairs​ ​experience.​ ​Before​ ​Google,​ ​Lie​ ​led​ ​Government​ ​Affairs​ ​in​ ​EMEA for​ ​Goodyear​ ​Dunlop​ ​from​ ​2008,​ ​and​ ​also​ ​managed​ ​Corporate​ ​Communications.​ ​Previously,​ ​Lie was​ ​Senior​ ​Vice​ ​President​ ​of​ ​Government​ ​Relations​ ​for​ ​ABN​ ​Amro​ ​Bank​ ​and​ ​worked​ ​in​ ​the Government​ ​Affairs​ ​Team​ ​of​ ​General​ ​Motors​ ​Europe.​

• Essa Reijmers, Dutch expert to EWL Observatory on violence against women has been working on violence against women for nearly three decades. Since 1998 she has been working for Blijf Groep, one of the largest Dutch shelter-organizations, providing a range of services in two provinces, with 6 shelters and non-residential programs for both adults and children. Her focus at Blijf Groep has always been on innovation and development of new approaches, amongst which digital safety and systemic interventions (like the Orange House-approach). She participates in several networks on national level and is the Dutch delegate in the European Women’s Lobby Observatory, on behalf of the Dutch Women’s Council, NVR. She fill talk about SafetyNed.

• Salome Mbugua, Chair of the European Network of Migrant Women, will focus on the intersection of racism and sexism online. Advocate for human rights and gender Equality, Salome Mbugua is the founder and president of AkiDwA, the migrant women’s network in Ireland. Salome have served at various advisory board, expert groups and boards at European level and in Ireland. She is the chair of European network of migrant women and is a board member of the European Women’s Lobby. She is a former board member of Equality Authority, state board in Ireland and vice chair of National Women Council of Ireland. Salome is currently undertaking a doctorate research on conflict resolution and peacebuilding at Trinity College Dublin.

• Sodfa Daaji, youth activist in Italy, member of Afrika Youth Movement and of Youth4Abolition, will focus on the experience of young women. She is a 24 years old feminist, proud abolitionist and activist for women’s rights in Italy and Tunisia. She studies International Relations and Diplomatic Affairs at the University of Bologna. On march 2017 she has been elected as chairwoman of the Gender and Equality committee at Afrika Youth Movement. Her activism focuses particularly on human trafficking, migrant women and the relationship between Gender Equality and Religious Freedom.

• Céline Piques Feminist for a long time, since 2014 she is active with Osez le Féminisme ! » a French feminist organisation with 26 branches across the country. In 2015, she coordinated the campaign « Marre du rose ! » («  Stop Pink ! » ) to denounce the stereotypes in the toys industry. Since 2016, she has been the webzine and newspaper editor-in-chief. In 2017, she worked on the campaign « Osez l’égalité » (Dare Equality) during the election period, and became spokeswoman of Osez le Féminisme !

• Negin Nazem Zorromodi, youth activist, Sweden is an Information Technology student at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. She also is a board member of the Stockholm women empowering center in Sweden, a former webmaster and app founder and a manager in the KTH Equality week. She has spoken about cyberviolence and methods to stop cyberviolence attacks. She also works with IT documentation and financial reporting at Novartis. She was a participant at the AGORA Young Feminist Summer School 2017, organised by the European Women’s Lobby, where she led a workshop about cyberviolence.  
   
• Isabel Ventura, Portuguese expert to EWL Observatory on violence against women, on EWL recommendations Isabel holds a PhD. in Sociology from the University of Minho “Medusa at the Court house: images of women, sexuality and violence from the analysis of law in books and law in action” was awarded the “APAV Research Award 2016”. Presently, she is the coordinator of a Master course seminar about sex crimes at the Catholic University of Oporto, School of Law. She also coordinates, along with Maria do Mar Pereira, the network of emergent researchers from the Portuguese Association of Women’s Studies – APEM. She is the Portuguese expert of the Observatory of Violence Against Women at the European Women’s Lobby and is a member of the Editorial Board of Palgrave Communications. Check out her research.
  

11h15-12h15 – Tweetchat discussion

Around 4 main topics:
11h15-11h30: a male-dominated digital world
11h30-11h45: links between sexist media and cyberVAWG
11h45-12h: initiatives on protection and justice
12h-12h15: recommendations

Check out later video messages by:

• Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society
• Terry Reintke, MEP, on the European Parliament report on gender equality and empowering women in the digital age
• Karen Sadlier, psychologist, France, on the impact of cyber violence against women

Save the date and join us to say NO to online violence against women and girls in Europe! Join us by following @EuropeanWomen!
#Exposetheabusers
#Saynotoonlineviolence
#HerNetHerRights

Terry Reintke on #herNetHerRights

Karen Sadlier on #HerNetHerRights