This research seeks to examine the availability and effectiveness of existing domestic legal remedies for survivors of technology-related violence against women (VAW) to access justice and to prevent such violence from occurring.
The research took place between April 2013 and June 2014 by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) as part of a multi-country project entitled “Ending violence: Women’s rights and safety online”.
In this report, domestic legal remedies are analysed in the context of women’s access to justice, while simultaneously noting that the existence and enforcement of laws protecting women and the availability of legal counsel during the process of adjudication are not enough to measure women’s access to justice. The research adopts a framework of access to justice that goes beyond legal measures, and views VAW as a product of a hierarchical system of oppression. This framework explores the intersectional nature of discrimination and remains mindful of the entire continuum of violence experienced by women. At the same time, the framework is invested with an understanding of the continuum of agency and empowerment that women individually and collectively exercise.
[Adapted from source]