Ending violence against women and girls in the real and digital world

November 2025  – Each year on the 25^th of November, we mark the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, an issue Efus has been working on ever since its foundation almost 40 years ago. It is a scourge that affects millions of women across the world: a staggering one in three, according to the UN. 

The rise of digital gender violence 

More worryingly perhaps, it is taking new forms and spreading more widely via the online world. This is why the UN this year is focusing its campaign on such a “serious and rapidly growing threat that seeks to silence the voices of many women – especially those with a strong public and digital presence in fields such as politics, activism, or journalism.” Numerous studies* show that online information channels fuel abuse against women and girls, which often spills out onto the physical world. 

The emergence of the so-called ‘manosphere’, which spreads misogynistic, abusive content, is one of the most visible examples of this phenomenon. Indeed, the Council of Europe (CoE) notes that, “cyberviolence is an increasing problem worldwide – even more so since the Covid-19 pandemic – and is often gender-based and targeting women and girls. Cyberviolence hampers the full realisation of gender equality and violates women’s rights.”

A priority in local security policies

We at Efus believe that such widespread violence, which equally affects the public, professional and private spheres, must be tackled as a matter of priority by local security policies. In our Security, Democracy and Cities Manifesto, we recommend that local and regional authorities be “involved in strategies against gender violence” and that their “role in the field of prevention and victim support be recognised and strongly supported by national governments as well as European and international institutions.” 

More women needed in the crime prevention workforce

Our members commit in this Manifesto to “intensifying their efforts as coordinators and facilitators of prevention networks that include a multiplicity of stakeholders” and to “increasing the diversity of profiles – particularly gender – in the teams involved in the prevention of violence against women.”

During our latest triennial Security, Democracy and Cities conference (2024, Brussels), we  held a session on gender-based violence. Participants stressed that improving the detection, prevention and assistance for victims of gender-based violence requires collaborative partnerships among a large array of stakeholders, and that both victims and perpetrators should be engaged in preventive measures. 

We at Efus are committed to adopting a feminist, gender-based perspective in our work responding, as ever, to the needs of cities in our network.

Training police officers

One important aspect is the need to train all relevant actors, in particular police officers, in dealing with victims and understanding the specific nature of such violence, including the cycle of violence and various types of abuse (psychological, physical, virtual, economic, etc.). They also stressed the importance of having a diverse workforce, at all levels of hierarchy, in the police but also more widely across all public services and other actors involved in urban security. 

One example is the regional government of Catalonia in Spain, which is working on how to increase the number of women in the regional police force (the Mossos d’Esquadra) as part of the EU-POLNET network of European local and regional police forces. 

Four decades of work

Efus has been working on the issue of gender equality and gender-based violence ever since it was founded, in 1987. It sadly remains as prevalent today as it was back then, although it can be said that there is now more awareness at all levels of government and in society. We are committed to adopting a feminist, gender-based perspective in our work responding, as ever, to the needs of cities in our network.

Over the years, we have worked with our member cities on various aspects of gender-based violence, from the abuse of elderly women to human trafficking for sexual exploitation. One of the most recent projects in which we were partners was SHINE (2020-2023), which sought to create a common culture among nightlife stakeholders and give them appropriate tools to prevent sexual harassment in nightlife venues.

Inspiring local practices

The safety of nightlife for women is an issue that concerns a good number of our member cities, such as Nice and Bordeaux (France), which have both rolled out the Ask for Angela scheme creating a network of hospitality venues and shops that provide assistance to victims of harassment in venues or outside in the street. The city of Nice implemented a locally adapted version of this scheme through the Efus-led IcARUS project, which we led from 2020 to 2024.  

There has been a lot of work on how urban public spaces can be adapted to the specific safety needs of women and girls, for example through public lighting and urban design.

Looking at all issues through the gender lens

Beyond local practices that seek to directly counter manifestations of gender violence and assist victims, it is necessary and enlightening to consider all issues of crime and urban security through the lens of gender. This approach is gaining traction among policy makers throughout Europe (and beyond), and we at Efus hope it will become mainstream. 

Local authorities can contribute to preventing it by adopting a gender approach in all their security policies and programmes, which means looking at issues from the perspective and the lived experience of women and including them in decision-making at all levels. 

One area where the gender perspective brings new ideas is public space protection. There has been a lot of work in recent years on how women and girls can feel secure or not in their city and public spaces, and how these can be adapted to their specific safety needs, for example through public lighting and urban design. The practice of exploratory walks in which women walk through the city at night and note where they feel unsafe and why is now (relatively) commonly used by urban planners and municipal officials. 

A ’whole of society’ approach 

These examples, which only partially reflect the wealth of practices to prevent gender-based violence that our member cities, and many others, are conducting, point to this idea that what’s needed is a whole of society approach. It means that everybody, everywhere, at every level of government and society include a gender approach in all aspects of urban security both in the physical and digital spaces. We at Efus are totally committed to playing our part so that women and girls can be safe and free in our cities. 

* See: The Alan Turing Institute, How Technology can enable Violence Against Women and Girls; Rutgers International, “Blessing and a curse”: tech boom fuels online violence against women and girls, often leading to physical violence; United Nations, ‘Anxiety, paranoia, fear’: The consequences of digital violence against women

Further information
From us: 
> More on Efus’ work on gender equality and gender-based violence
> Our podcast on gender in urban security (18 minutes) with Barbara Holtmann, Efus’ Associate Expert on gender questions and Director of the NGO Fixed Africa, and Àngels Vila Muntal, Director of the crime prevention service of the city of Barcelona (Spain)
> An interview with Barbara Holtmann on gender and urban security 
> The IcARUS project, which Efus led between 2020 and 2024, adopted the gender approach in all its activities. The partners published a factsheet that explains this approach in a clear and concise manner, and how it can be applied to all domains of urban security. 

From the European Union: 
> EU measures to end violence against women
> European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA): gender-based violence survey – Key results (2024)
> Eurostat: data about gender-based violence in the EU

Photo: ©iStock – Xavier Lorenzo