By Joyce Danso
Accra, March 13, GNA – Including women and girls in the digital space will result in a more innovative solutions to their basic needs and promote gender equality in modern societies, a Deputy Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has said.
Madam Mercy Larbi, who is also in charge of Legal Affairs, CHRAJ, said their (women) exclusion on the other hand “come with huge coast”.
She was speaking at the Kings University College’s Faculty of Law, Governance, and International Relation’s celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day.
Madam Larbi said a United Nation Gender Snapshot 2022 report had indicated that women’s exclusion from the digital world had drained $ 1 trillion from the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of low- and middle-income countries in the last decade.
“This cost is estimated to increase to $1.5 trillion by the year 2025 if steps are not taken to bridge the gap.”
Speaking on the topic: “Eliminating Technology Facilitated/ Online Violence Against Women and Engendering Digital Equality”, the Deputy Commissioner admitted that Gender Based Violence (GBV) occurred in the digital space and disproportionately affected women and girls globally.
She said technology – facilitated GBV took many forms, including sextortion, image-based abuse, doxing, cyberstalking, online impersonation, cyberbullying and online gender and sexual harassments.
According to her women and girls were more likely to experience cyberbullying, cyberstalking and cyber harassment than men and boys.
Madam Larbi said in Ghana, women faced extensive online abuse, including the distribution of sexually explicit images and videos, hateful and abusive comments.
She said in order to address those tortious human rights violation targeted at women and girls, it would require States and internet intermediaries to put in place proactive measures.
“Due diligence principle obligates State’s compliance in five areas; namely prevention, protection, prosecution, punishment and provision of redress and reparation to reverse the practice.”
The CHRAJ Deputy Commissioner acknowledged that a single intervention could not break “the deep-seated barriers to the technology industry and accessibility to the digital space. There is, therefore, multi-facetted approach with multiple change agents in order to bridge the gap”.
Madam Larbi told the audience to break the bias and bridge the digital gap by encouraging more females to join the digital space and technology industry for “ all inclusive” society.
She appealed for improvement in internet access in Ghana, especially remote areas to increase women’s accessibility.
“Telecommunication companies as part of their corporate responsibility can invest in community engagement programmes for women in rural communities to bridge the digital gap between men and women.
A review and reduction of cost of data would be a great help in addressing the challenge of affordability of internet service.
She appealed to women and girls not to be scared to speak out against bullying , harassment and all forms of discrimination at the work place or any other place.
“At CHRAJ, our offices are open nationwide to investigate all complaints of discrimination, harassment or any form of human rights violations against all persons regardless of gender.”
GNA