Council Of Europe Guidance On Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women

The Short Read

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers adopted Recommendation CM/Rec(2026) 2 on accountability for technology-facilitated violence against women and girls on 4 March 2026. It was officially launched on 10 June 2026.
The Council describes it as the first international legal standard focused on accountability for this form of violence.
The guidance asks member states to strengthen legal, institutional and regulatory responses, covering criminal law, civil remedies, administrative measures, justice systems and technology company responsibilities.
Technology-facilitated violence includes acts of gender-based violence that are committed, assisted, aggravated or amplified through technology and affect women or girls.
The Council’s approach calls for prevention, accessible support, safe evidence handling, cross-border cooperation, user-friendly reporting systems, effective content moderation and safety-by-design standards.

Curbing technology-facilitated violence against women: A global bulletin on a digital safety crisis

The Council of Europe has given member states new guidance on responding to technology-facilitated violence against women. That marks a significant development in how governments treat online and digitally enabled abuse.

The guidance comes through Recommendation CM/Rec(2026) 2, adopted by the Council’s Committee of Ministers in March and launched in June. It focuses on accountability for violence against women and girls that is enabled, amplified or worsened through technology. The Council describes the recommendation as the first international legal standard dedicated to this issue. It is a European standard, but the issue is global.

Women’s lives are increasingly digital. Work, banking, education, dating, organising, public speech, politics, journalism and entrepreneurship all now pass through devices and platforms. Abuse has followed that movement. Harassment, image-based sexual abuse, cyberstalking, impersonation, doxxing, threats, digitally enabled coercive control, and AI-generated sexualised content can move across borders faster than most legal systems can respond.

That is why the Council’s guidance deserves attention beyond Europe. It gives governments, regulators, courts, police forces and technology companies a clearer set of principles for dealing with a form of violence that has often been treated as a lesser version of offline harm.

What technology-facilitated violence against women means

The Council of Europe defines technology-facilitated violence against women and girls as acts of gender-based violence that are “committed, assisted, aggravated or amplified” through or by technology and that affect women or girls.

In everyday terms, this can include:

cyberstalking
image-based abuse
non-consensual sharing of intimate images
threats of rape or physical harm
gendered hate speech
impersonation
doxxing
digitally enabled coercive control
harassment through messaging apps and social media
AI-generated deepfake sexual abuse
that begins online and creates offline safety risks

This form of violence is not limited to public figures. Women journalists, politicians, activists and influencers often face visible abuse. But it can also target students, workers, entrepreneurs, ex-partners, rural women entering digital finance, and girls using everyday apps.

UNFPA defines technology-facilitated gender-based violence as violence committed, assisted, aggravated or amplified partly or fully through information and communication technologies or digital media against a person based on gender.

The wording may sound technical. The lived impact is not. A threatening message, a leaked image, a fake sexualised video, a hacked account or a stalker using location tools can disrupt a woman’s education, job, public speech, mental health, relationships and physical safety.

Change in Content has earlier covered this through stories on online violence against women reaching a tipping point, digital violence against women in India and the deepfake crisis in online abuse against women. The Council’s new guidance takes that wider concern into law, regulation and institutional accountability.

What the Council of Europe is asking member states to do

The recommendation is built around accountability. That is the key shift.

The Council is asking member states to create an environment where technology-facilitated violence against women and girls is neither enabled, excused, accepted, nor ignored. It says accountability should go beyond criminal law and include civil and administrative responses, too.

The guidance covers 4 main areas.

1. Prevention and support

Member states are asked to implement prevention initiatives, including education, capacity-building and awareness-raising. They are also asked to provide accessible, effective, holistic and coordinated support structures for victims.

It is important because many victims first face confusion before they find justice. They may not know whether the abuse is illegal. They may be told to block the person, leave the platform or “ignore it”. The Council’s guidance recognises that response systems need to begin with support, not dismissal.

2. Stronger laws and policy frameworks

The recommendation calls for the criminalisation of technology-facilitated violence against women and girls, with effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions. It also asks states to make civil and administrative remedies available to victims, involve relevant stakeholders in the development of laws and policies, and support data collection and research for evidence-based monitoring.

It matters because digital abuse often falls between legal categories. One incident may involve privacy, sexual abuse, stalking, cybercrime, platform rules and cross-border evidence. Without clear legal definitions and remedies, victims can be moved from one office to another while the abuse continues.

3. Accessible justice and safer investigations

The Council calls for justice systems that prevent secondary victimisation and safeguard victims’ privacy, dignity and safety during investigations and proceedings. It also asks states to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement, prosecutors, and the judiciary, promote multi-agency collaboration, and ensure that evidence is securely collected, handled, stored, and presented, including through cross-border cooperation where needed.

That is one of the most practical parts of the guidance.

Digital abuse often relies on screenshots, metadata, platform records, device access, and the rapid preservation of evidence. If police, prosecutors and courts are not trained to handle that evidence, cases can weaken quickly. If victims are asked intrusive or blaming questions, they may stop pursuing justice.

4. Accountability for technology companies

The recommendation also addresses technology companies and internet intermediaries. It calls for accessible and user-friendly reporting systems, effective content moderation, ethical use of AI-assisted systems, safety-by-design standards, gender-responsive terms of service, age-appropriate safeguards and user control tools.

The Council’s official page adds that technology companies should integrate safety-by-design and human rights risk assessments, adopt transparent policies and terms of service, cooperate with authorities and use effective content moderation practices. That is where the guidance becomes relevant to every platform economy.

A woman should not need public outrage before a harmful image is removed.
A teenager should not need legal expertise to report sexualised impersonation.
A journalist should not need to abandon her work because threat systems travel faster than safety systems.

Why does technology-facilitated violence against women need global strategies?

The Council of Europe has 46 member states, but the problem does not stop at European borders.

A perpetrator, a victim, a platform server, a payment system, and a content-sharing network may all be located in different jurisdictions. A deepfake image can be generated in one country, uploaded in another, mirrored across private groups, and circulated through encrypted channels before a complaint is even filed.

That is why technology-facilitated violence against women needs global strategies.

We cannot solve the issue only through individual safety tips. Women are already told to lock profiles, change passwords, stop posting photographs, avoid certain apps and stay silent. Those steps may help in specific cases, but they also shift the burden back to victims.

A serious response needs governments to update laws, police to understand digital evidence, courts to protect victims from re-traumatisation, platforms to design safer systems, schools to teach digital conduct, workplaces to support affected employees, and international cooperation to handle cross-border abuse.

The Council’s guidance offers a framework that other regions can study, adapt and strengthen.

The Change in Content view

Technology-facilitated violence against women is becoming one of the defining safety issues of the digital age.

It affects public life, work, education, politics, journalism, entrepreneurship and everyday communication. That can silence women, push them out of online spaces, damage reputations, create physical danger and make digital participation feel risky.

The Council of Europe’s guidance is important because it treats the issue as a governance and accountability challenge. That is the right direction.

The next stage will depend on implementation. Laws need clarity. Police need training. Platforms need responsibility. Evidence systems need speed. Victims need protection that does not humiliate them further. Schools and workplaces need to recognise that digital violence can follow a woman into real life.

The world has, by and large, treated online abuse against women as background noise. More importantly, the Council’s new recommendation sends a different signal: this is violence, and systems must respond.

Editorial Note and Sources

This DEI Insights article by Change in Content is based on official Council of Europe material on Recommendation CM/Rec(2026)2. Moreover, the article includes an infographic brochure and Council pages that explain the recommendation. We used the Global Government Forum as a news source for the launch and summary of the guidance. The article uses the Council’s definition and recommendations as the primary basis for analysis and frames the issue as a global digital safety concern. It is an explanatory news piece, not legal advice.

Sources used:

Council of Europe Issues New Guidance on Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women

The Council of Europe has set out a new accountability framework for member states, calling for stronger laws, safer platforms, better evidence handling, victim-centred justice and safety-by-design standards.