The DeStalk project has so far trained more than 350 practitioners addressing gender-based violence, on how to effectively tackle stalkerware and other digital forms of gender-based violence. On 16 December 2022, the DeStalk partners combining the expertise of the IT Security Community, Research and Civil Society Organisations, and Public Authorities, will share practical insights on building knowledge and capacities among stakeholders and practitioners to fight digital gender-based violence.
The rapid proliferation of internet technologies places women and girls at an increased risk of experiencing digital violence against women, including both violence committed online and technology-enabled abuse.
“Online violence is only the continuum of offline violence against women and girls. Violence against women that takes place offline every day, is widely amplified, spread, and worsened in the online world and by new technologies. We as GREVIO could not ignore these facts and last year we published our first General Recommendation on digital dimension of violence against women. With this recommendation we put forward a list of measures that state parties can take to apply the standards of the Istanbul Convention more specifically to the many digital forms of violence that women and girls experience,” explains Iris Luarasi, President of GREVIO.
The internet and related technologies can contribute to coercive control, especially in those relationships where violence is already present offline.
In Europe, 70% of women who have experienced cyberstalking have also experienced at least one form of physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner. Moreover, Kaspersky’s latest stalkerware report shows that in the European Union Germany, Italy, France and Spain are amongst the most affected countries by stalkerware.
As a response to this growing crisis of cyber violence against women, the DeStalk project, co-funded by the Rights, Equality, and Citizenship Program of the European Union, has contributed to increase knowledge and technical capacity of relevant professionals and institutions, as well as their collaboration, to address stalkerware and cyberviolence.
“While digital technologies offer unpreceded opportunity for women and girls who have survived gender-based violence to access help and support, the paradox is that the same technology is misused to extend coercive control. High overlap between cyberstalking and physical contact violence and abuse shows that digital dimension of gender-based violence is yet another, almost everywhere reaching form of violence against women. DeStalk project tackles this challenge by bringing together knowledge of state-of-the-art technology with capacity building to prevent and respond to the digital dimension of violence against women,” remarks Dean Ajduković, WWP European Network Chair.
· The DeStalk consortium developed an innovative e-learning platform to train professionals of women support services and perpetrator programmes, and officials from public authorities. The e-learning course has been widely popular among target groups and the maximum number of participants has been reached: over 130 participants have already successfully completed the course while additionally more than 80 professionals are expected to finalise it in the next months and refresh attendance again in the year after.
· Additionally, partners have developed new tools and upgraded already available ones to support the work of perpetrator programmes and victim support services, these have been compiled in a training pathway. More than 220 practitioners addressing gender-based violence in their everyday work have undergone the training pathway and have acquired shared know-how on effective procedures and instruments.
· Finally, the DeStalk team have been developing guidelines and templates for institutions and organisations to run regional awareness raising campaign to stop digital violence against women. DeStalk spread awareness among the general public on the negative impact of cyber abuse and on how to safeguard oneself.
Given the high interest from practitioners and in view of a newest EU policy impulse, on 16 December 2022 the DeStalk dissemination online event “Tackling the digital dimension of violence against women" will bring together experts from relevant fields of competence to stimulate crosscutting dialogue and cooperation among key stakeholders. A panel made of research and cybersecurity entities, public authorities and law enforcement agencies, experts on gender-based violence and practitioners of services, will be happy to share their experience and approach and interact with attendees. In addition, the project partners will share DeStalk outputs outlining how regional ecosystems may further implement the action and incorporate the outputs in their local strategy against cyberviolence.
“We are thrilled to see that the DeStalk e-learning course on cyberviolence and stalkerware has been running very successfully. The course, which we developed together with our expert partners from research and education, civil society organizations and governmental authorities, fills a knowledge gap among professionals working in the field of domestic violence. As tackling digital violence is of utmost importance, we would like to help other organizations to replicate the efforts that we undertook. To that end, we are honored to share our expertise and experiences from the project with the public at the DeStalk online conference on December 16th,” adds Christina Jankowski, Senior External Relations Manager, Kaspersky.
The event will take place on Friday, December 16, 2022 from 9.30 to 12.30 CET online, and will be held in English, with English subtitles. Participation is free of charge while registration is mandatory.
More info: https://www.work-with-perpetrators.eu/destalk
Contacts:
· Berta Vall Castelló - project coordinator - Blanquerna - bertavc@blanquerna.url.edu
· Dimitra Mintsidis - project dissemination - WWP European Network - d.mintsidis@work-with-perpetrators.eu
About DeStalk
The DeStalk project is run throughout Europe thanks to the collaboration of an international and interdisciplinary project team, which the European Commission chose to support with its Rights, Equality and Citizenship Program:
· Fundación Blanquerna, research and education organization within the Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sports Sciences from Ramon Llull University, Spain
· Kaspersky, a leading global cybersecurity company
· Regione del Veneto, the local government of Italy’s Veneto Region
· Una Casa per l'Uomo, a civil society organization working with victims and perpetrators in Italy
· WWP European Network, European umbrella association for perpetrator programs
About Kaspersky
Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky technologies and we help 240,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.
