24/11/2025 Equality and Non-Discrimination | Women free from violence
“Online violence against women and girls, facilitated by new technologies and the insufficient regulation of artificial intelligence and online platforms, is growing exponentially and is a serious threat to the human rights of women and girls,” declared PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos, speaking on the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November). “The current democratic backsliding in Europe and beyond targets women and girls with the aim of silencing and re-assigning them to the private sphere.”
“Our Parliamentary Assembly, through its Parliamentary Network Women Free from Violence, insists that gender equality and the rights of women, in all their diversity, are cornerstones of democracy,” underlined the President.
“We are committed to re-doubling our efforts to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence, particularly through the promotion of the Istanbul Convention and its implementation on the ground, for the benefit of all women and girls in our member states,” highlighted the Chair of the Assembly’s Equality and Non-Discrimination Committee, Catia Polidori (Italy, EPP/CD). “We call for renewed efforts to counter growing attacks on the Convention.”
“We join the theme of this year’s UN campaign, ‘UNiTE to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls’, which focuses on digital violence against women and girls as one of the fastest-growing forms of abuse, and a real threat to gender equality,” she further emphasised. “As political leaders, we must work for better legislation and policies to prevent and combat online violence against women and girls, and to ensure that adequate resources are channelled to their implementation and enforcement.”
“Every day, in every country, women and girls in all their diversity are exposed to deepfakes and other types of non-consensual intimate image abuse, as well as to sexist hate speech, stalking, harassment and other forms of digital gender-based violence. Anonymity, encryption, jurisdictional barriers and the rapid evolution of technology facilitate the impunity of perpetrators and prevent the protection and redress of victims/survivors of this violence,” added the President.