T-CY Mapping Study on Cyberviolence: recommendations

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Efforts – including joint measures – by a broad range of stakeholders are required to address the multi-facetted problem of cyberviolence.

Recommendations at the level of the Council of Europe and Cybercrime Convention Committee:

The Council of Europe (T-CY Secretariat and C-PROC) should consider making available online information on cyberviolence included in the present study on existing policies, strategies, preventive, protective and criminal justice measures taken by public sector, civil society and private sector organisations, and creating an online portal to receive, document and make available new developments and information on such policies, strategies, preventive, protective and criminal justice measures taken by public sector, civil society and private sector organisations.
Given the difference in scope but given also the complementarity between the Budapest Convention and its Protocol, and the Lanzarote and Istanbul Conventions, Parties - within their respective treaty obligations – and the Secretariat may consider promoting synergies between these instruments in practice.
Parties to the Budapest Convention should consider better training and awareness raising for criminal justice authorities regarding cyberviolence, including its investigation, prosecution and sanctioning, where it constitutes a criminal offence. The Council of Europe – through its C-PROC – and other organisations should support such capacity building activities. T-CY members may wish to share the present study among relevant institutions within their countries.
Measures to prevent, protect against and – in cases where it constitutes a criminal offence – prosecute cyberviolence should be conceived as contributing to the implementation of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, in particular, Sustainable Development Goal 16.
Parties to the Budapest Convention should ensure greater gender balance in institutions dealing with cybercrime.

Download the T-CY Mapping Study on Cyberviolence

Strasbourg, France 09 July 2019

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What is cyberviolence?

Cyberviolence being a relatively new phenomenon that encompasses a wide variety of crimes, the term is still difficult to define precisely. The T-CY Working Group on cyberbullying and other forms of violence, in its Mapping Study on Cyberviolence, settled on defining cyberviolence as:

The use of computer systems to cause, facilitate, or threaten violence against individuals, that results in (or is likely to result in) physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering and may include the exploitation of the individual's circumstance, characteristics or vulnerabilities."

Why is addressing it important?

Cyberviolence is often misunderstood and not taken as seriously as it should be. Yet, it is important to remember that cyberviolence may start online, but it often ends offline with devastating consequences for the victims and their families. Threats of violence, stalking, incitement to suicide, sollictation of children for sexual purposes... may all result in the victim self-harming or being physically attacked by the initial perpetrator. It is important to act in order to prevent cyberviolence from happening, and to protect and bring justice to the victims.

However, most countries are struggling to recognize the different facets of the problem and to address them in domestic law. Some types of cyberviolence are addressed fully or in part in international agreements, but many remain unaddressed.

The Council of Europe is working across sectors (through, for instance, the mechanisms related to the Budapest Convention, the Istanbul Convention and the Lanzarote Convention) to ensure human rights are upheld in cyberspace as well, for all.