Despite commitments made by member countries through the national poverty reduction strategies and programmes of the past decade, the number of people living in poverty in Africa rose by over 82 million, with women constituting 70 percent of the increase. The major causes of women’s poverty are embodied in unequal power relations between women and men, discriminatory inheritance rights and lack of access to property and productive resources. Widespread poverty also adversely affects women’s health and education.
Poor women are more vulnerable to all forms of violence because they typically live in uncertain and dangerous environments. Violence against women is the main outcome of gender-based inequalities, creating far greater consequences for women’s well-being and empowerment than previously thought. This is acknowledged in paragraph 117 of the Beijing Platform for Action:
“The fear of violence including harassment, is a permanent constraint on the mobility of women and limits their access to resources and basic activities. High social, health and economic costs to the individual and society are associated with violence against women.
Violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into subordinate positions…...” (United Nations: The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 1996, p.75)
The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action (POA) links population action to development with a significant emphasis on women’s rights, empowerment and gender equality.
The Programme for Action promotes gender equality in all spheres of life including in the family and community, but decisively places men in the center of the process if change is to be achieved. It encourages men to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behavior, as well as their social and family roles (ICPD POA, Para 4.27). It highlights men’s special responsibility and promote their active involvement in:
“Shared control and contribution to family income, children’s education, health and nutrition; and recognition and promotion of the equal value of children of both sexes. Male responsibilities in the family must be included in the education of children from the earliest stages. Special emphasis should be placed on the prevention of violence against women and children.” (ICPD POA, Para 4.27).
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"Set me up, knock me down: Legal obligations of dating apps to address sexual violence"
A recent investigation by ABC in Australia found that hundreds of people experience sexual harassment and abuse on Tinder and damningly, that Tinder largely ignored survivors who approached the app for help after the abuse. This report once again brings to the fore the clear need for internet intermediaries, including online dating companies, to take more active steps to combat gender-based violence (GBV) facilitated by their platforms. While there are growing calls from the public for dating apps or websites such as Tinder, Bumble, Grindr and Hinge to abide by this moral responsibility, the legal position on this issue is murkier.
Most countries lack clear legal frameworks which establish the obligations or responsibilities of intermediaries to prevent and respond to cases of online GBV, let alone offline sexual violence which is facilitated by online platforms. In some countries, safe harbour provisions established to preserve free speech online that were intended to protect intermediaries from liability for third party content hosted on their platform have been expanded to protect intermediaries from liability for any illegal acts conducted by third parties using the platform.
For instance, in the United States, Grindr was held to be protected from liability under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (the safe harbour provision under US law). This was despite the fact that Grindr took no action in response to over fifty requests to take down fake profiles created by one user’s ex which led to hundreds of men harassing the user at his home. On the other hand, courts in Israel have held dating sites liable for failing to remove fake profiles using the personal information of another user, and have ordered the payment of compensation in such cases.
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