A/HRC/38/47 39. Online stalking is the repeated harassment of individuals, perpetrated by means of mobile phones or messaging applications, in the form of crank calls or private conversations on online applications (such as WhatsApp) or in online chat groups. 27 40. Online sexual harassment refers to any form of online unwanted verbal or nonverbal conduct of a sexual nature with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, in particular by creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. 41. “Revenge porn” consists in the non-consensual online dissemination of intimate images, obtained with or without consent, with the purpose of shaming, stigmatizing or harming the victim. 42. All the above-mentioned forms of online violence create a permanent digital record that can be distributed worldwide and cannot be easily deleted, which may result in further victimization of the victim. Relevant data and surveys have shown that, in the majority of cases, online violence is not a gender-neutral crime. Surveys of the gender dimension of online violence indeed indicate that 90 per cent of those victimized by non-consensual digital distribution of intimate images are women. 28 C. Application of the international human rights framework to online violence against women and girls 1. Soft law developments addressing online violence against women and girls 43. In the past decade, there have been significant soft law developments in the understanding and recognition of online gender-based violence in the international human rights framework on women’s rights and violence against women. 44. The issue of online gender-based violence was first addressed in 2006 by the Secretary-General in his in-depth study on all forms of violence against women (A/61/122/Add.1 and Corr.1), in which he noted that more inquiry about the use of ICT was needed so that emerging forms of violence could be recognized and better addressed. 45. In its resolution 20/8, the Human Rights Council clearly stated that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online. The view of the Internet and digital technologies as enablers of rights and the digital space as an extension of rights held offline paved the way for discussions on how digital technologies had an impact on women’s and girls’ rights, specifically with regard to gender-based violence.29 46. In 2013, in its agreed conclusions, the Commission on the Status of Women called upon States to use ICT to empower women and to develop mechanisms to combat violence against women and girls (see E/2013/27). 47. In 2013, the General Assembly, in its resolution 68/181, went further by expressing its grave concern that women human rights defenders were at risk of and suffered from violations perpetrated both online and offline by State and non-State actors, and called upon States to exercise due diligence and to promptly bring perpetrators to justice. 48. In 2015, the Human Rights Council, in its resolution 29/14, recognized that domestic violence could include acts such as cyberbullying and cyberstalking — thereby reinforcing the framing of online gender-based violence as part of the continuum of violence against women — and that States had a primary responsibility for preventing and promoting the human rights of women and girls facing violence, including those facing domestic violence. 49. In 2016, the General Assembly, in its resolution 71/199, recognized that women were particularly affected by violations of the right to privacy in the digital age, and called 27 28 29 10 See https://genderingsurveillance.internetdemocracy.in/. See the website of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative at www.cybercivilrights.org. See Association for Progressive Communications and Hivos, “Global Information Society Watch 2013: Women’s rights, gender and ICTs”, 2013.