A/HRC/40/60 Risks, threats and attacks in the private sphere and against families and loved ones 40. Women defenders face distinct risks in the private sphere. They have at times – girls especially – been forcibly confined at home by family members to prevent them from engaging in human rights activism. Some experience domestic violence because of their activism, as partners or parents subject them to verbal and physical abuse to pressure them into ceasing their efforts. They have been separated from their children by their husbands as a form of punishment. Women are sometimes targeted on their way home or while they are at home. 41. Family members and loved ones of women defenders – in particular, their children, partners, relatives and close friends – have been targeted by aggressors to coerce them into giving up their activism. Such attacks trigger deep feelings of guilt in women defenders; this pain is deepened when others blame them for causing these attacks. Physical attacks, sexual violence, torture, killings and enforced disappearances 42. The threat of violence, including sexual violence, is often used to silence women defenders. Even rumours alone, for example, of sexual violence committed during detention or imprisonment, can be damaging. Women defenders are also at risk of femicide, rape, acid attacks, arbitrary arrest, detention, killings and enforced disappearances. 43. On 31 July 2018, anti-corruption campaigner Kateryna Handzyuk was attacked by an unknown man with sulfuric acid in Kherson, Ukraine, and died three months later. 9 Ms. Handzyuk, a member of the executive committee of Kherson City Council, had exposed the corruption of local authorities, including the police. The killing was one in a series of brutal attacks against human rights defenders, for which few perpetrators have been brought to justice. 44. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the enforced disappearances of three women defenders in Saudi Arabia – Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah, 10 who had campaigned for civil and political rights, including for the lifting of the ban on female drivers and the end of the guardianship system that makes women legally and socially dependent on men, 11 and Amal al-Harbi, who had campaigned for the release of her imprisoned husband, Fowzan al-Harbi, a human rights defender. All three women were arrested on 30 July 2018 by the Mabahith State security forces in the wake of a government crackdown on public figures and other human rights defenders that began in September 2017 and a wave of arrests of women defenders in May 2018. They remain detained in the Al-Mabahith prison in Dhahban. Online harassment, violence and attacks 45. Women human rights defenders are often subjected to online harassment, violence and attacks, which include threats of sexual violence, verbal abuse, sexuality baiting, doxing (a practice in which private information about a person is shared online by others) and public shaming. Such abuse occurs in comments on news articles, blogs, websites and social media. The online terror and slander to which women are subjected can also lead to physical assault. Women defenders have been maligned by “deepfake” videos, in which images and videos are combined and manipulated to create computer-generated replicas of them saying and doing things they have not done. Women are often unable to defend themselves from these acts. 9 10 11 See also press release from International Federation for Human Rights dated 16 November 2018. Available from www.fidh.org/en/issues/human-rights-defenders/ukraine-suspect-arrested-in-thekilling-of-katerina-gandzyuk-fighting#. References are made throughout the document to urgent appeals and allegation letters sent by the Special Rapporteur. All such communications are available from https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments. With respect to Ms. Badawi and Ms. alSadah, see UA SAU 11/2018. Alkarama, “Saudi Arabia: crackdown on human rights defenders continues unabated” (9 August 2018). 9