Full Report
This webinar brings together Citizen Lab researchers with policy advisors, Women, Peace and Security (WPS) experts, and human rights defenders to reflect on twenty-five years of the WPS agenda in the age of digital repression. The discussion will explore how gender, technology, and authoritarianism intersect to shape women’s participation in peace and security, and how targets of gendered digital attacks and feminist movements are building resilience and reimagining women’s digital security for the next 25 years.
Analysis Summary
# Main Topic
The intersection of digital repression, gender, and authoritarianism challenges the effectiveness and legacy of the 25-year Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda (UNSCR 1325). Specifically, the threat landscape involves gendered digital attacks, surveillance, and harassment used by state and non-state actors to silence women engaged in peacebuilding and human rights work.
## Key Points
- The 25th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 highlights the new challenges posed by digital repression to women's meaningful participation in peace and security processes.
- Digital technologies are being leveraged as tools for surveillance, control, harassment, and gender-based violence, extending these harms into the digital sphere.
- Women journalists, human rights defenders, and peacemakers remain systematic targets of these advanced forms of digital attacks.
- The discussion emphasizes an intersectional feminist framework to address compounded vulnerability experienced by women from marginalized communities (based on race, sexuality, class, etc.) in digital environments.
- A central theme is the need for resilience building and reimagining digital security strategies for feminist movements and targets of these attacks for the future of the WPS agenda.
## Threat Actors
- State and non-state actors employing patriarchal, authoritarian, and militarized tactics.
- Harmful actors utilizing digital technology to threaten and silence women, even when they are in exile (Digital Transnational Repression).
## TTPs
- **Mercenary spyware deployment:** Use of sophisticated surveillance tools against activists and defenders.
- **Targeted digital surveillance:** Specific monitoring of individuals engaged in peacebuilding and human rights advocacy.
- **Online harassment and disinformation campaigns:** Coordinated efforts to discredit or silence targets digitally.
- **Extension of gender-based violence:** Using technology to perpetrate violence beyond physical spaces.
## Affected Systems
- Digital communication platforms used by women journalists, human rights defenders, and peacemakers.
- Systems targeted by mercenary spyware and surveillance tools.
- Digital environments where marginalized women face compounded vulnerabilities.
## Mitigations
- Building resilience among targets of gendered digital attacks.
- Reimagining and strengthening women’s digital security strategies for the next 25 years.
- Applying an intersectional framework to understand and counter layered forms of digital violence.
## Conclusion
The current digital environment, characterized by sophisticated surveillance and gendered cyber-harassment, actively undermines the goals of UNSCR 1325. Moving forward, advancing the WPS agenda requires aggressively addressing digital authoritarianism and developing robust, intersectional digital security measures to protect women engaged in peace and conflict resolution.