A conference on digital violence against women was held on 6 December under the Icelandic Presidency of the Council of Europe and organised jointly with the Violence against Women Division and the Cybercrime Division of the Council of Europe .
Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, stated in her opening remarks that online abuse of women “shows no sign of stopping”.
To address this, the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) developed in 2021 a recommendation to the states parties of the Istanbul Convention on the digital dimension of violence against women, to provide guidance on the application of the treaty’s provisions to violence against women committed in the digital sphere. The Budapest Convention and its 2nd Additional Protocol on enhanced cooperation and disclosure of electronic evidence offer tools to investigate crimes and obtain evidence across border and to ensure the necessary international co-operation.
The President of Iceland, Guðni T. Jóhannesson, also stressed the need of further progress on gender equality and fighting online violence.