About APC The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of civil society organisations (CSOs) dedicated to empowering and supporting people working for peace, human rights, development and protection of the environment through the strategic use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). APC’s work in women’s rights and gender equality is done through its Women’s Networking Support Programme (WNSP), a global network of women that has supported women’s networking for social change and empowerment since 1993. Since 2005, APC WNSP has been working to understand and respond to the physical and policy environment of information and communication technologies and its impact on violence committed against women and girls. From 2009, with funding from the Dutch government’s MDG3 Fund, it supported over 500 women’s organisations that directly reached more than 500,000 women through a 12-country project in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Through this experience, APC WNSP found that the incidence of technology-related violence against women (VAW) is increasing. The most common cases documented were cyberstalking, sexual harassment, surveillance and the unauthorized use and manipulation of personal information including images and videos. A major concern is that women and girls who fall victim do not know what to do to stop the abuse, what charges they can report, who they should report to, and what help they can get. In all of the 12 countries, policies, regulations or services that respond to these new forms of violence do not exist or are inadequate. It is urgent to formulate effective policies that protect the rights of individual users and develop remedies to the increasing incidence of technology-related VAW. <End Violence: Women’s Rights and Safety Online> 37