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Dear Alumni,

The Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) joins our regional and global communities in marking the听16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (November 25 鈥� December 10, 2025). This year, our priority actions focus on:

• Confronting technology-facilitated sexual and gender-based violence听in line with the UN theme听鈥淯NiTe to End Digital Violence against Women and Girls.鈥�
• Embedding gender and social inclusion in disaster preparedness and recovery, especially in the wake of Hurricane Melissa鈥檚 devastating impact across the Caribbean.

鈥淓ncourage attitudes, practices, and systems that promote equity and justice, and reject those that sustain violence.鈥�听鈥� Dr. Halimah DeShong, University Director, IGDS

We encourage you to read Dr DeShong鈥檚 full message, explore the educational resources provided, and join in amplifying The UWI鈥檚 leadership in ending gender-based violence.

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Since the early 1990s, activist communities across the Caribbean, have joined our counterparts in the rest of the world, to promote heightened awareness of the problem of sexual and gendered harms, during the 16 Days of Activism Gender-based Violence. Annually, the period November 25 to December 10 invites reflections on progress made and enduring barriers to preventing and ending the sexual and gendered violence, disproportionately affecting women, girls and persons with diverse genders and sexualities.

This year, we, at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, at AV平台, join our regional and global communities of activists and advocates in raising awareness of
emerging ways in which these violences proliferate. Two such concerns occupy our focus this year.
1. Reflected in the 2025 United Nations鈥� theme, 鈥淯NiTe to End Digital Violence against Women and Girls鈥� is a call for us to more meaningfully confront the rapid rate at which information and communications technologies (ICTs) are weaponised to commit acts of sexual and gendered violence. In other words, we encourage an increased focus on technology-facilitated sexual and gender-based violence. There is also need to acknowledge how communities of activists, psychosocial professionals and educators, mobilise ICTs and other digital technologies to denounce violence, and to promote gender equity and justice.

2. Consistently embedding gender and social inclusion perspectives in disaster preparedness, mitigation and recovery effects must be prioritised; especially in the wake of the devastating effects of Hurricane Melissa, in Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. Sometimes cited as 鈥榯echnology facilitated鈥�, 鈥榠mage-based鈥�, 鈥榙igital鈥� and/or 鈥榦nline鈥� sexual and gender-based violence, these harms refer to acts of violence committed, assisted, aggravated, or amplified through the use of ICTs and digital media, against someone, based on their gender and/or sexuality. Women, girls, persons with diverse genders and sexualities, and children are far more likely to be
targets.

Naming the context in which digital violence occurs is changing as rapidly as innovations in ICTs and digital media appear. These changes notwithstanding, identifiable patterns emerge and include:

鈳� The perpetration of cyberstalking or unwanted, persistent and threatening contact, and surveillance through the use of technology. This is often linked to forms of stalking which
occur offline;
鈳� Posting of sensitive, personal material without a person鈥檚 permission;
鈳� Image-based violence involving the use of sexual imagery, without a person鈥檚 consent, in ways that can humiliate, exploit and/or objectify an individual;
鈳� The manipulation of images using editing software, such as attaching someone鈥� face to a another鈥檚 body;
鈳� Online impersonation; and
鈳� Online attacks in the form of sexual harassment and bullying through the use of digital technologies and digital media.
Even as ICTs are used in ways to commit these egregious harms, we also recognise how activists use digital technologies, including digital media, to call attention to, and to strategise to end sexual and
gendered violence. In this regard, we commend groups like 鈥業ntersect Antigua鈥�, as well as the creation of online educational tools by the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, at The
UWI, as part of how we might leverage ICTs and other digital technologies to address sexual and gendered violence in our Caribbean. Additionally, a draft model law on technology-facilitated sexual
and gender-based violence now exists as part of work under the Bele m do Para Convention, to which several Caribbean governments are signatories.

Turning attention to the second of our 2025, 16 Days of Activism priority actions, we reiterate the need for amplified focus on preventing and addressing the increased levels of sexual and gendered violence, against women and girls, that emerge in the wake of crises. It is for this reason that we urge state, civil society, community, private sector and development agency partners, supporting relief efforts across the Caribbean, to ensure gender and social inclusion perspectives are embedded in disaster mitigation and recovery efforts.
There are far too many lessons on how existing inequalities are heightened in times of crisis. Inconsistent engagement with these vantage points in the language, design and actions associated with relief and rebuilding, often means that we miss how, for example:
Women and children are far more likely to be displaced;
The intensification of unpaid work and care activities (including in shelters) which predominantly fall to women and girls;
鈳� The immediate injury and mortality rates, associated with hurricanes and other hazards, tend to be higher for men, who are more likely to be engaged in labour-intensive preparatory and recovery work, and who are more likely to take riskier actions during a storm, explosive eruption or other hazards;
鈳� Women are far more likely to be affected by decreased access to contraception and other sexual and reproductive health resources;
鈳� Increased rates of unwanted pregnancies for women and girls in post disaster situations;
鈳� Existing challenges in the built-environment are made worse for persons with physical disabilities in a disaster context;
鈳� Increased likelihood of women鈥檚 and girls鈥� exposure to sexual and gendered violence;
鈳� Inadequate representation of women, persons with disabilities and representatives from rural communities on national response effort leadership teams; and
鈳� The need for more resources to be directed to support civil society organisations, including women-led and disabilities-focused entities, on the frontlines of recovery action.

This year, we invite you to be part of the change required for shifting the attitudes, practices, and systems of gender inequality, which produce, and sustain violence against women and girls. Join our efforts to name, confront and reject the various ways in which sexual and gendered harms endure. Encourage decision-makers in your countries and communities to prioritise a focus on gender and social inclusion in comprehensive disaster management, disaster resilience planning; and the promotion of just uses of technology. Make a difference in your circles of influence by using and sharing the educational material highlighted here, and by being a voice for change in your community.

Dr Halimah DeShong
University Director
Institute for Gender and Development Studies
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