Disclaimer: All statements and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the views of WIIS Italy.
October 2025 marked the 25th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which launched the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. This anniversary provided a critical opportunity to assess how the agenda is evolving to address emerging threats, including those arising in and through digital spaces.
The international community tasked with implementing the agenda is currently operating in an increasingly complex environment, shaped by overlapping conflicts, protracted crises across regions, and the challenge, or at times the unwillingness, to integrate WPS principles into response strategies.
Over the past two decades, the peace and security landscape has also been transformed by new trends and threats, including climate-related insecurity and the rapid expansion of digital technologies, which now permeate virtually all aspects of social and political life.
People live in digital spaces, which are deeply embedded in personal lives and everyday interactions. For those living in conflict, the digital world is not separate from their lived experience; it shapes how they communicate, access information, express themselves, and navigate challenges, sometimes serving as a life-saving tool, and at other times becoming an additional source of risk. Social media, messaging apps, and online platforms can offer support, connection, and access to information, but they can also expose individuals, particularly women and girls, activists, and peacebuilders, to harassment, intimidation, and targeted attacks.
The role of technology as a tool to advance and promote the WPS agenda is evident. Digital platforms can amplify women’s voices, increase access to information, facilitate advocacy, and create avenues for participation and peacebuilding. At the same time, however, digital spaces have also become arenas for violence, exclusion, and marginalisation. This dimension remains comparatively underexplored and insufficiently integrated into policy responses. In particular, disinformation and misinformation have emerged as tools for spreading narratives that undermine the implementation of the agenda and weaken women’s participation in decision-making processes, security missions, and institutional and community settings.
The most recent annual report of the UN Secretary-General on the WPS agenda (S/2024/671) explicitly highlights the importance of addressing gender-based discrimination in online spaces. The report calls for a zero-tolerance approach to intimidation and retaliation against women engaged in political life, human rights advocacy, and peace operations, with specific attention to protecting their work in the digital environment. Particular emphasis is placed on safeguarding women from all forms of violence and discrimination enabled or amplified by digital technologies.
How does digital violence manifest?
Online violence against women and girls encompasses any act committed or amplified through digital means that causes physical, sexual, psychological, economic, or social harm. Technology-facilitated gender based violence is directly related to the protection pillar of WPS and it widespread: 81% of women parliamentarians[1], 73% of women journalists[2] and 38% of women globally[3] report experiencing digital rights violations and 20% of women under 34 report experiencing daily abuse online[4].
Online harassment and threats, cyberstalking, doxxing, gender-based hate speech, the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images, and coordinated disinformation or intimidation campaigns are among the most prevalent forms of technology-facilitated violence. In conflict-affected and post-conflict settings, these forms of violence often intersect with existing power asymmetries and insecurity.
Beyond individual harm, such violence has systemic effects, restricting women’s participation in public and political life. Women in public roles often reduce their online engagement due to fears of retaliation, reputational damage, or physical harm; dynamics that directly undermine inclusive governance and peace processes.
Ways forward
Within the WPS framework, it is therefore critical to examine how digital violence manifests, whom it targets, and with what consequences. Women in politics, peacebuilders, members of security forces, journalists, and activists are particularly exposed. Hate speech, digital harassment, doxxing, defamation, and disinformation campaigns collectively contribute to the shrinking of civic and operational space, especially in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
Understanding the dynamics of digital violence against women operating in conflict and post-conflict environments will be essential in the years ahead. A more comprehensive approach is needed to ensure that international organisations and actors implementing the WPS agenda adopt a 360-degree vision of peace and security. As women’s participation in negotiations and peace processes remains limited, failure to address digital violence risks introducing yet another structural barrier. If left unaddressed, the digital sphere may become an additional tool for exclusion, rather than a space for empowerment.
Margherita Sofia Zambelli is an expert on the Women, Peace and Security agenda and gender equality, with a particular focus on foreign policy and multilateralism. She advises national governments, international organisations, the United Nations and civil society organisations, on the integration of gender perspectives into policy frameworks. She held the position of Gender Advisor to the G7/G20 Sherpa Office at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers during the Italian G7 Presidency.
[1] Inter-Parliamentary Union. (2016). Sexism, harassment and violence against women parliamentarians. Issues Brief. http://archive.ipu.org/pdf/publications/issuesbrief-e.pdf
[2] Dhrodia, A. (2021, 13 April). To stop online abuse against women, we must reform digital spaces. World Wide Web Foundation. https://webfoundation.org/2021/04/to-stop-online-abuse-against-women-we-must-reform-digital-spaces
[3] Amnesty International. (n/d). Online Violence. https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/technology/online-violence/
[4] PLAN International. (2024, 23 July). Hundreds of girls say they face online harm at least once a month. https://plan-international.org/news/2024/07/23/hundreds-of-girls-say-they-regularly-face-online-harm/
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