A/HRC/38/47 boys, who are starting their lives extensively using new technologies to mediate in their relationships, affecting all aspects of their lives. In the section below, the Special Rapporteur considers the phenomenon of violence against women facilitated by new technologies and digital spaces from a human rights perspective. 13. Even though the core international human rights instruments, including those on women’s rights, were drafted before the advent of ICT, they provide a global and dynamic set of rights and obligations with transformative potential, and have a key role to play in the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights, including a woman’s rights to live a life free from violence, to freedom of expression, to privacy, to have access to information shared through ICT, and other rights. 14. When women and girls do have access to and use the Internet, they face online forms and manifestations of violence that are part of the continuum multiple, recurring and interrelated forms of gender-based violence against women. Despite the benefits and empowering potential of the Internet and ICT, women and girls across the world have increasingly voiced their concern at harmful, sexist, misogynistic and violent content and behaviour online. It is therefore important to acknowledge that the Internet is being used in a broader environment of widespread and systemic structural discrimination and genderbased violence against women and girls, which frame their access to and use of the Internet and other ICT. Emerging forms of ICT have facilitated new types of gender-based violence and gender inequality in access to technologies, which hinder women’s and girls’ full enjoyment of their human rights and their ability to achieve gender equality.7 15. Terminology in this area is still developing and not univocal. In several official United Nations documents, and in particular the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, reference is made to the general and inclusive term “information and communications technology” (or ICT), while in other reports ���online violence”, “digital violence” or “cyberviolence” are used. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur refers to “ICT-facilitated violence against women” as the most inclusive term, but mainly uses “online violence against women” as a more user-friendly expression. Where appropriate, she uses both terms, as well as the terms “cyberviolence” and “technology-facilitated violence” as alternatives. Mindful that many forms of online violence covered in the report are perpetrated against both women and girls, she uses the term “women” in an inclusive manner, which includes girls whenever applicable, 8 while recognizing that girls are a frequent target of this form of violence. 9 16. Despite being a relatively new phenomenon and, consequently, the lack of comprehensive data, it has been estimated that 23 per cent of women have reported having experienced online abuse or harassment at least once in their life, and that 1 in 10 women has experienced some form of online violence since the age of 15.10 17. At the normative level, the interaction between technology and women’s human rights standards is marked by the recognition of the principle that human rights protected offline should also be protected online.11 Since women’s rights are human rights and the prohibition of gender-based violence has been recognized as a principle of international human rights law,12 women’s human rights as developed through comprehensive regional and international conventions, jurisprudence and norms should be protected online, including through the prohibition of gender-based violence in its ICT-facilitated and online 7 8 9 10 11 12 See International Telecommunications Union (ITU), “ICT facts and figures 2016”. Girls are also protected by legislation on child pornography, which is outside the scope of the present report. See the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (the “Lanzarote Convention”). See also European Institute for Gender Equality, “Cyber violence against women and girls”, 2017. See European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, “Violence against women: an EU-wide survey”, 2014. Human Rights Council resolution 32/13. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women general recommendation No. 35 (No. 19). 5