16 Days of Activism on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls 2025. PHOTO/UN Women.
By Ms. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda
Each year, from 25 November to 10 December, the world turns orange for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence – a powerful call to end the most pervasive human rights violation of our time. But as we mark these 16 days, we must remember that justice cannot be seasonal. For 365 days a year, women and girls deserve to live free from fear – offline and online alike.
Across Africa, digital spaces have become the new frontlines in the struggle for equality. The same technologies that connect and empower us can also be weaponized to silence, shame, and harm. Women politicians, journalists, activists, and public figures are targeted with threats and disinformation.
Girls are harassed online. Private photos are stolen and manipulated by artificial intelligence into deepfake pornography. What happens online is not “virtual” – it is real, and it destroys lives.
Digital violence is real violence
Digital violence against women and girls is not a new form of abuse – it is an old inequality in new packaging. It is patriarchy, transferred to the digital space. It is rooted in and reflects the same power imbalances that have long defined women’s experiences offline.
Across Africa, digital violence is compounded by a deep digital divide. Only 38 per cent of people on the continent are internet users, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – and among women the figure falls to just 31 per cent. Women face additional barriers, from limited access to affordable data and devices to social norms that restrict their use of technology. Digital violence is therefore rooted in digital inequality.
The less access women have, the more vulnerable they become. For many young women, limited privacy, shared devices, or the cost of data can all make it harder to report abuse or seek help – leaving them more exposed to exploitation or coercion online.
The accountability gap
Despite progress, justice remains elusive. Too few countries have laws addressing digital violence, and those that do often struggle to enforce them. Globally, nearly half of all women and girls still lack legal protection from online harassment. The result is a culture of impunity: perpetrators hide behind screens, victims are blamed, and the law lags behind technology.
We must close this gap – not only by strengthening legislation, but by applying existing laws for violence “in real life” equally to the digital world. Violence is violence, whether it takes place in a home, on a street, or through a smartphone.
The African Union’s new Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, adopted earlier this year, is the region’s first dedicated instrument on this issue, explicitly recognizing cyberspace as a site where rights can be violated and must be protected. But regional frameworks are only as strong as their implementation within countries.
Technology for good – not for harm
Technology holds enormous promise for Africa’s future. From education to entrepreneurship, from agriculture to advocacy, digital innovation is reshaping the continent. But the same tools that can lift millions out of poverty can also be twisted into instruments of abuse. Artificial Intelligence can now generate misogynistic deepfakes faster than courts can respond, while algorithms amplify hate speech faster than fact-checkers can counter it.
That is why we must act now – to ensure technology serves equality, not exploitation. Governments must invest in digital literacy and safe online spaces. Technology companies must be held accountable for the content they host and the harm their platforms enable. And young people – especially young men – must be part of reshaping digital culture to reject misogyny and build respect online.
UN Women’s work in Africa
Across Africa, UN Women and its partners are helping to close the gender digital divide – from strengthening laws and justice systems to supporting survivors and building women’s digital resilience.
Through initiatives such as the ACT to End Violence Against Women Programme, we are already seeing measurable shifts. For example, in Nigeria and Kenya, the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), a grantee partner of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls, is generating new, localized evidence on the prevalence and patterns of online abuse, informing national advocacy and policy reform efforts.
Partners have convened intergenerational dialogues and regional roundtables that bring younger and older feminists together and have delivered digital safety training to over 600 women and girls – equipping them with practical tools to navigate online spaces with greater confidence, and to use technology as a platform for leadership rather than fear.
Complementing this, work in other countries has focused on closing critical data gaps: in Zimbabwe, the Government is collecting data on technology-facilitated gender-based violence and sexual harassment for the first time through the 2025 MICS Survey following joint advocacy by UN Women and UNICEF, while in Uganda, questions on technology-facilitated violence were integrated into the 2020 national VAW Survey. Together, these initiatives are strengthening evidence, services, and accountability across the region.
Our message in 2025 remains clear: this work cannot stop when the campaign ends. Every day must be a day of activism – for governments, for tech companies, and for all of us.
Digital violence against women and girls is not inevitable; it is preventable. Prevention begins with accountability – with recognizing that justice for women online is justice for women everywhere.
Let us make this the generation that reclaims technology as a force for equality and ensures that Africa’s digital future is one where every woman and girl can connect – safely, freely, and with dignity.
Ms. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda is the UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director for Normative Support, UN System Coordination, and Programme Results.
This article was first published by AFRICA RENEWAL
