Facebook has announced the launch of a Global Women’s Safety Advisory Board and a new women’s safety hub in the Facebook Safety Centre. Uganda’s Neema Iyer, founder of Policy, a civic technology advocacy is among the 12 expert women in the safety advisory board whom Facebook will consult whenever it’s developing new policies, products and programs related to women’s safety.
As part of its commitment to women’s safety, Facebook joins other big tech companies in signing on to the Web Foundation’s commitment to women’s safety ahead of the UN Women’s Generation Equality Forum in France (30th June -2nd July).
This is supported by a letter signed by 150 prominent women from across 6 continents including Emma Watson, Ashley Judd, Gemma Chan and Aranya Johar, former presidents and prime ministers including Michelle Bachelet, Julia Gillard and Helen Clark, journalists including Maria Ressa and Femi Oke, and sports icons like Billie Jean King.
Commenting on the announcement, Facebook’s Safety Policy Manager for Africa Middle East & Turkey Sylvia Musalangani said, “Women’s safety is an important issue around the globe and we are committed to keeping women safe from abuse, exploitation and harassment online and offline which is why we’ve established this advisory board to guide us on our policies, tools, and resources and also share their insights on key issues facing women in their communities.”
The 12 Global Women’s Safety Expert Advisors are nonprofit leaders, activists and academic experts and were established after years of working with over 200 organizations and experts in women’s safety across the world. They were instrumental in the creation of the Facebook Safety Center, and will be meeting quarterly. The advisors include:-
Uganda: Neema Iyer, is the founder and director of Pollicy, a civic technology organization. She works at the intersection of data, design and technology. Through feminist research, she tackles subjects such as digital inclusion and digital rights.
Australia: Asher Flynn is Associate Professor of Criminology at Monash University and Vice President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology. Her work focuses on image-based abuse and technology-facilitated violence.
Brazil: Enrica Duncan is Project Director and Deputy Director of Nossas, a women-led laboratory for civic engagement and activism in Latin America that develops technology to equip citizens to impact policy making.
Global: Kalliopi Mingeirou is the Chief of the Ending Violence against Women and Girls Section at UN Women. Previously she worked for UN agencies, as well as international NGOs in the areas of human rights, women’s rights and refugee protection in different countries.
Hong Kong: Lisa Moore oversees Women’s Foundation’s research on gender issues and leads advocacy efforts that aim to transform existing attitudes that prevent women and girls from fully participating in society.
Indonesia: Tunggal Pawestri is an independent expert on gender equality, sexual rights and diversity issues and works to ensure more women are represented in public debates and leadership.
Ireland: Caitriona Gleeson spent two decades working to end gender-based violence and now leads Women for Election, a nonpartisan nonprofit which encourages and supports women in Ireland to run for politics.
Mexico: Margarita Guillé Tamayo is a social activist, founder and executive coordinator of the Interamerican Network of Women Shelters. She is an international advisor on gender-based violence for governments and nonprofits/NGOs.
Morocco: Stephanie Willman Bordat is human rights lawyer, NGO activist and founding partner at MRA Mobilising for Rights Associates where she works throughout the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) to promote women’s human and legal rights.
Philippines: Mariane Dorothy Rosario is a Global Advocacy Champion for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and a Girls Get Equal advocate for Plan International. She advocates to end online abuse and harassment and violence against women and girls.
South Korea: Ji-Yeon Lee is Associate Professor, Counseling Psychology, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. She specializes in cyber-sexual violence and counseling psychology.
United States: Erica Olsen leads the TechSafety.org project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence and is an international expert on the intersection of technology and gender-based violence.
