A/HRC/38/47 further obstacles posed by the lack of technical knowledge and ability in the judiciary (including court systems, magistrates and judges). In addition, the costs of litigation prevent many survivors, particularly poorer women, from pursuing their cases in court. It is therefore vital that the responses of first responders — including Internet intermediaries, the police and helplines41 — and of the judiciary and regulators be assessed in order to achieve a faithful depiction of the reality of women’s experiences and to facilitate their access to justice and remedies. (d) Punishment 69. Punishment entails the duty to punish perpetrators for their crimes by means of sanctions that are necessary and proportionate to the offence. The certainty of adequate punishment conveys the message that ICT-facilitated violence against women and girls will not be tolerated, which is particularly important for women victims of online violence, who often do not receive an effective response from State authorities and perceive a culture of impunity for perpetrators.42 (e) Redress, reparation and remedies 70. In most cases, victims of gender-based violence are granted reparations as civil remedies and include financial compensation to cover the costs of the quantifiable losses incurred (such as the cost of medical care, loss of wages and damage to property), injuries and non-quantifiable losses, in addition to the need for survivors to rebuild their lives in the short, medium and long terms. Reparation measures include also the immediate removal of the harmful content as well as forms of restitution, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, combining measures that are symbolic, material, individual, and collective, depending on the circumstances and the claims made by the victim. They should also include an immediate injunction to prevent the publication of harmful content. (f) Role of intermediaries 71. The role of private intermediaries in the regulation and governance of the Internet has progressively come under scrutiny, given that online gender-based violence is usually perpetrated on privately owned platforms, which are frequently in use across many jurisdictions. Internet intermediaries play a central role in providing digital spaces for interaction and, as such, have specific human right responsibilities. These responsibilities have not, however, yet been fully addressed under the international human right framework; for example, while the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights affirm the responsibility of business enterprises to respect human rights in general, they do not make any direct reference to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women or other women’s rights instruments (see A/HRC/32/38, para. 37). 72. Internet intermediaries, any corporation storing customers’, data, and those providing cloud storage also have the duty to comply with human rights standards by keeping the data secure, and should be accountable for the hacking of data if insufficient safeguards are in place. 73. Although emphasis has been placed on the business and human rights responsibilities of intermediaries, less focus has been placed on how their policies and practices have an impact on women. Research indicates that inadequate and substandard responses from intermediaries concerning online gender-based violence can have a negative effect on freedom of expression, resulting in censorship by platforms, self-censorship or 41 42 Digital Rights Foundation, “December 2017: One Year of the Cyber Harassment Helpline Countering Online Violence”, 7 January 2018. See Internet Governance Forum, Best Practice Forums: Handbook 2015. 15