WIDE+ Migration and Gender Working Group, in partnership with our member Creación Positiva, has sent a letter of recommendations to Members of European Parliament, Dr Sylwia Spurek and Ms Elissavet Vozemberg-Vrionidi on addressing legal and policy gaps in tackling gender-based cyberviolence. The letter has been drafted and supported by many women’s rights organizations and experts including NGO Atina, Donestech, Glitch UK, Laia Serra Perelló, and others.

The letter is a timely initiative given that the two MEPs are currently driving a legislative process to combat gender-based violence, with specific reference to cyberviolence. Gender-based cyberviolence is part of the continuum of widespread violence against women and girls and is a serious violation of women’s human rights. All forms of systemic and social discrimination, including gender, racial and economic ones, are reproduced and magnified online. These discriminations intersect, resulting in more extreme consequences for migrant women, young women, women from ethnic minorities and indigenous and racialized women, LGBTIQ+ people, women with functional diversity and women from other vulnerable and marginalized groups.

Overall, the letter recommends the importance of having a working definition of gender-based cyberviolence that can capture the scope, extent, types, gendered and intersectional nature of this form of violence. At the same time, it outlines the importance and urgency for the EU to ratify the Istanbul Convention, and calls for Internet intermediaries to be held accountable for all forms of cyberviolence that occur on their platforms. The online space is a public space and fundamental human rights have to be protected above other priorities.

Letter of recommendations_GenderbasedCyberviolence_June2021

If you want to show support for the letter and write to your MEPs, disseminate key message on social media, etc. kindly reach out to us at: info@wide-network.org.

Source: https://wideplus.org/2021/06/08/wide-and-creacion-positivas-recommendations-for-the-legislative-report-on-combating-gender-based-cyberviolence/

The project’s latest publication – with input from one of International Women* Space’s co-founders, Jennifer Kamau, – provides innovative solutions and lessons learned from a transnational collaboration among national migrant feminist associations and groups across Europe. It provides inspirational and relevant examples of practices we have encountered and good practice we have developed in our joint project of migrant feminists and other feminists. The reports shows how it is possible to promote and protect the rights of migrant women, which includes refugee, undocumented and other women that have been on the move between countries.

This project lead to three main lessons that are elaborated in the report:

1. There are many good examples of migrant feminist work that we can learn from. Learning transnationally gives us a completely new dimension.
2. Building a transnational, migrant feminist movement in Europe is both needed and possible, and we can tell you how it can be done.
3. We need many more opportunities to exchange our work at European level and migrant feminists need to be more often included in dialogue with politicians and media.

This collaboration came about through the joint project: “Strengthening Innovative Solutions to Protect Female Migrant and Refugee Rights”, that started at the beginning of 2018 and ended in November 2019. We worked together, coordinated by the European network WIDE+, with partners that included networks of local migrant groups, associations that provide services to migrant, refugee and trafficked women and girls, and associations with a mixed membership of migrant feminist and other internationally focused feminist groups. The national coordinators were: in Spain, Calala Fund, Mujeres con voz and Red de Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe en Espana (RED); in Serbia, Atina; in  Denmark, K.U.L.U. –Women and Development;  and in Sweden, GADIP.

“Migrant women are one of the most targeted groups by the ultra-right, in addition to institutional racism: what will states do about this?” –

Jennifer Kamau

Editors: Gea Meijers (chief editor), WIDE+; Gihan Hassanein; and Alison Whyte (proofreader),

with the contributions and support from:

• Cristina Reyna (the Netherlands), WIDE+;
• Silvina Monteros Obelar and Tatiana Retamozo (Spain), Red de Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caraibe en Espana (RED);
• Luciana Davies (Spain), Mujeres con Voz;
• María Palomares Arenas Cabral (Spain),
• Calala Fund; Ulla Björnberg and Nancy Contreras (Sweden), GADIP;
• Lejla Smajlovic (Sweden), Lex Femme;
• Jelena Hrnjak and Marijana Savic (Serbia), Atina; Janice G Førde,
• Lisbeth Vogensen and Ruth Ejdrup Olsen (Denmark), K.U.L.U. –Women and Development;
• Alyna C. Smith (Belgium), PICUM;
• Jennifer Kamau (Germany), International Women’s Space.

The editors want to thank all the participants, speakers and experts that shaped this project, which forms the basis of this publication.

• How migrant Women in Europe work together to resist forms of Fundamentalism, Anna Zobnina, strategy & policy Coordinator @European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW)

Reflecting on the European experiences and practices of the network, Anna Zobnina will suggest strategies to counter neo-right fundamentalisms. As part of her daily work, she builds the capacity building of migrant women organisations and increases their visibility in European policy making. Anna has over ten years’ experience of feminist research and advocacy of violence and discrimination against women, with a specific focus on migrant women and girls, sexual exploitation and sexual-reproductive health and rights.

• How are young Feminists responding to neo-right Populism?, Sodfa Daaji, Coordinator @Afrika Youth Movement and organizer Radical Girlss project @ENoMW

Sodfa Daaji will present practices of how young feminists are responding to right wing populism and fundamentalisms. Sodfa is a Tunisian feminist activist who focuses on how culture, religion and tradition affect the achievement of equality. Among others, she has been shortlisted for the women of Europe award in the category “youth in activism” for her advocacy on enhancing women’s rights in Africa, and on advocating against the sexual exploitation of women and girls in Europe.

• Undocumented women In Europe, their path to ensure access to justice
  Alyna Smith, Advocay Officer @PICUM (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants)

Alyna Smith will address the situation of undocumented women in Europe, their vulnerability created by insecure status, and examples of practices that prevent violence and ensure access to justice. Alyna works at PICUM, a network of more than 160 organisations across Europe, and in other regions, that advocates for the rights of undocumented migrants. Her work focuses on access to health care and access to justice for undocumented migrants, as well as legal strategies.

• We exist, we are: the importance of self-organized Women in Germany
  Jennifer Kamau – co-initiator of International Women Space @International Women Space in Germany

Jennifer Kamau will talk about how migrant women can self-organize in the context of gender discrimination and racism they face. Jennifer is a Berlin-based activist and researcher. She is one of the initiators of the International Women Space, which is a network of (former) asylum seekers and migrants that fosters solidarity and collaboration, produces books, organizes campaigns and conferences on the issues of asylum seekers and migrants. This network emerged from the “famous” occupation of the Oranienplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg some years ago, as a feminist response to the predominantly male concerns of the insurgent refugees.