15th UN Crime Congress: HLS thematic meeting 11 – 28 September 2026

Good afternoon. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome to this very special event, leveraging technology to secure women's leadership and empowered participation in public life. It is a pleasure and an honor to see so many of you join us for this very important discussion. Throughout this Crime Congress, in fact, we are exploring how is technological change reshaping the fields of crime prevention and criminal justice and our societies more broadly. Today's event focuses on another important dimension of that discussion. How can we ensure that technological progress supports safe and meaningful participation and creates opportunities for women to engage fully in public life? We are privileged to have with us an outstanding group of female leaders bringing perspectives from government, justice institutions, public administration, and international cooperation. Together, they bring a wealth of experience from policy, governance, and innovation. In the course of this event, we will hear perspectives on leadership, digital safety, participation, and practical actions needed to ensure that women can contribute, lead, and engage with confidence in an increasingly digital world. We will also learn about emerging initiatives and partnerships that seek to address these challenges through cooperation and innovation. It is now my pleasure to begin the first part of this session, which where we will have high level opening statements. So it's my pleasure to first invite remarks delivered on behalf of Her Royal Highness, Sheikha Fatima **** Mubarak. whose leadership and outstanding commitment to the advancement of women continues to serve as an inspiration both nationally and globally.

In the name of God.

The compassionate, the merciful, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests. In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful. Excellencies, distinguished guests, may the peace and blessings of God be upon you. It is my pleasure to welcome you all at this high-level UN event, and I am proud to participate in a meeting that brings together high-level participants that believe that future starts by preserving dignity, strengthening the values of justice, security, and sustainable development. It is my pleasure to convey to you a statement by Her Highness Sheikha Fatima **** Mubarak, the Mother of the Nation. In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, it is my pleasure to welcome you all And it is my pleasure to participate in a discussion on an issue that relates to our present and the future, namely leveraging technology to provide further opportunities to women and girls to strengthen their leadership and their participation in all walks of life. Technology has become an integral part of work, education, innovation, and decision making. Technology has created significant opportunities for women to communicate and to reach opportunities and education. However, taking full advantage of these technologies remains dependent on our ability to creating an environment that is safe, secure, and that strengthens confidence in the use of new technologies. In this regard, Technology-facilitated violence against women and girls is a challenge, a growing challenge that goes beyond individual harm. It has an impact on social and economic participation and on leadership and innovation opportunities. Threats, harassment, and abuse online may limit the ability of women to express themselves and to contribute fully to the public life. Therefore, addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive vision that does not limit itself to providing technology, but also to developing legislation and laws, strengthening protection and justice, and raising awareness, as well as establishing a common responsibility that brings together governments and international organizations, as well as partnerships with technology companies, and civil society. We do not view women merely as individuals that benefit from technology, but also as a partner in shaping technology and a source of innovation, solutions, and building societies more able to adapt themselves to changes. The more knowledge, confidence, and responsibility we have, the more opportunities there are to make an impact on the long term. Ladies and gentlemen, the United Arab Emirates has made the supporting women an integral part of our development journey. This is because we believe in the central role of women in building the nation and the future. This is why we launched the CyberPulse initiative for women and family. with the participation of the National Cybersecurity Council and the General Women's Union. This is a framework to prepare women through knowledge and skills and to strengthen the role of women in protecting the family, raising awareness, and improving the ability of society to confront technology challenges. Ladies and gentlemen, the United Arab Emirates has made supporting women an integral part of our development journey. based on our belief in the central role of women in building the nation and the future. The initiative has had an impact on the ground. including at the international level, by establishing the CyberPulse Academy for Women and the Family in order to exchange experiences, strengthen cooperation, and build the capacity of women to be able to support cybersecurity in their societies. This is because we believe that successful national experiences gain more value when they are transformed into a mechanism for the exchange of experiences. The protection of women and society in the digital age is a responsibility that goes beyond borders. We welcome the SafeT initiative launched by the UNODC. This initiative is a practical framework that strengthens the ability of countries and institutions to confront technology-facilitated violence and to turn international commitments into practical solutions. We welcome the launch of the Global Framework for Action on Ending Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women, and we hope that this framework will bring together international efforts and strengthen coordination among all partners and stakeholders in support of protection and inclusion mechanisms to allow women and girls to take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by the digital age in confidence and in dignity. Our Collective responsibility today is to make technology a power in the service of humanity that provides further opportunities, strengthens justice. We should all work together to build a future where women can become a principal partner in shaping digital transformation and leading this transformation. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Your Excellency. Ms. Kalyan Manai, Chairwoman of the Gender Women's Union, for raising both the specter of the threat that technology poses, but also the opportunity that it allows us to tackle some of the threats that women face as leaders and promote opportunities for their continued participation in public life. It's now my distinct privilege to welcome Ms. Monica Zuma, Executive Director of Unity to deliver her opening statement. As a distinguished diplomat, national security advisor, minister, public servant, Ms. Juma brings decades of experience as a female leader in the public world, but as well as her experience in governance, international cooperation, and multilateral engagement. Please, Madam Executive Director, you have the floor.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is a delight for me to join this timely discussion on using technology to open and safeguard safe space for women to have their voices heard in public life. As we have heard throughout this Congress and this morning, digital technologies have transformed our societies dramatically in recent years. They have opened unprecedented opportunities for connection, innovation, civil engagement, and economic empowerment. And for many women, digital platforms have created opportunities to speak, to organize, to lead, and to advocate for positive change at every level, from the local to the global. But every door that technology opens can also open a door for harm to enter. The digital space is increasingly being used to threaten, to intimidate, and to silence women. We see technology-facilitated violence in many different forms, including online harassment, cyberstalking, image-based abuse, and other forms of digital violence. Women who step into the public eye, such as politicians, journalists, community leaders, and activists, are particularly exposed and often deliberately targeted. their visibility becomes their vulnerability. And the boundary between the online and physical world is no longer as clear as we might think. A threat made on a screen can quickly become a threat at somebody's door. Abuse that begins online can spill over into the workplace, the home, and the wider community. While this violence can affect anyone, Women are disproportionately targeted, accounting for around 90% of reported victims. When women are driven out of public spaces, we all lose out. We lose ideas, we lose leadership, and we lose perspectives that are essential to building safer and more just societies. This is therefore not just a matter of technology alone. It is a matter of crime prevention and criminal justice. It is a matter of public safety. At its heart, it is a matter of protecting human dignity in a digital world. But because when technology is used to enable violence, the harm is not virtual. It is real. It is a serious violation of human rights. And we must always remember women's rights are human rights. That is why protecting those rights must carry through the entire criminal justice chain. We need to prevent violence before it happens, protect those who are targeted, and hold the perpetrators of this crime to account. Above all, we need to ensure laws, institutions, and capacities can keep up with the rapid pace at which technology itself is evolving. Today's discussion comes at the right time to consider these issues. Across the United Nations system, we are working to build safer, more inclusive digital spaces and to address violence against women and girls. Within our mandate, UNODC is supporting member states to strengthen crime prevention and criminal justice responses, improve support for victims and survivors, and strengthen accountability for tech-enabled forms of violence. For example, as part of our safety initiative, together with experts, we developed a new framework for action on ending technology-facilitated violence against women. The initiative aims to unite the different actors needed to address this challenge, connecting governments, women's protection organizations, first responders, criminal justice institutions, technology companies, civil society and academia to strengthen prevention, protection and accountability. We will work with them to turn commitment into practical action, including by developing tools and guidance that can be adapted to different national and regional realities. We want to help countries learn from one another, strengthen cooperation and build responses that are effective to the changing technological landscape. As part of this effort, we are continuing to advocate for countries to join the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, which so far has secured close to 100 signatories. We have three ratifications. We need 40 for the instrument to enter into force. For the first time in any international treaty, the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images is recognized as a criminal offense. This represents a major victory for victims of online abuse and an important affirmation that digital violence is real violence. It is also a promise to develop and implement clear legal and operational responses. I therefore encourage all Member States to sign, to ratify and implement this convention and to work collectively to ensure it delivers tangible protection for those most at risk, and particularly women. Beyond the convention, we have also developed a new strategy to prevent and combat non-consensual sharing of intimate images that combines legal, policy, and justice responses with technology-based solutions. And we are ready to go even further. But to do that, we need your support. We need to build closer partnerships, especially with the private sector and tech companies. We need to invest more in prevention, in victim support, and in criminal justice capacities. We need to leverage technology as a force for good and for improving access to justice. And we need international cooperation that reflects the increasingly borderless and transnational nature of online harm. Ladies and gentlemen, women should not have to choose between their safety and participation. Digital spaces should be environments where women can lead, express their views, and contribute confidently and meaningfully to their communities and societies. Let us use this Congress to advance a future in which all women and girls everywhere can participate fully, equally, and safely in public life, both online and offline. I thank you for your kind attention.

Thank you very much, Madam Executive Director, for your leadership and for conveying the full breadth of what UNODC can bring from the Cybercrime Convention to our work on addressing gender equality, crime prevention and preventing violence against women. I now have the pleasure of giving the floor to Ms. Nadira Kakimova, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Uzbekistan. As Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, Ms. Kakimova plays a key role in advancing national policy priorities and reforms, including efforts aimed at strengthening inclusive governance and expanding opportunities for women's participation and leadership. She will deliver her remarks on behalf of Her Excellency, Ms. Sayida Mirziyoyeva, Head of the Presidential Administration. You have the floor.

Assalamu alaikum. Good morning, dear guests, Madam Executive Director. Technology has transformed the ways in which women learn, visible in the scale of opportunities being created for women in Uzbekistan. Today, more than 900,000 women are studying in our higher education institutions, representing 54% of all students. while women account for 61% of research trainees and doctoral students. This year, we have also set the goal of creating income opportunities for 1.5 million women, including 400,000 who will enter entrepreneurship, alongside new programs to expand women's digital and financial literacy and access to technology-driven employment. For us, these figures are not simply indicators of social progress. They represent the foundation of future leadership. Because a young woman who has access to education, digital skills, and economic opportunity is better positioned to become not only a professional or an entrepreneur, but a decision maker and a leader in her community and society. At the same time, opportunity must be matched by protection. And Uzbekistan has therefore strengthened its response to violence against women, including through the criminalization of domestic violence and expanded systems of protection, legal assistance, and rehabilitation, while increasingly addressing the risks that emerge in the digital environment. We warmly welcome the launch of UNODC's initiative, Safety Initiative Leveraging Technology to Promote Digital Safety and Resilient Participation, because it brings together two agendas that should never be separated, enabling women to make full use of opportunities created by technology and ensuring that they are protected from the forms of violence and intimidation that can accompany that participation. Dear Excellencies, the question before us is no longer whether technology will shape women's participation in public life. It already does. But whether we will shape the digital environment so that it expands opportunity rather than reproduces barriers. The measure of our digital progress should not be how advanced our technologies become, but how much freedom, opportunity, and agency they create for people and for women in particular. The future we seek is one in which technology doesn't narrow the space for women's leadership, but enlarges it so that women are not only present in the digital public sphere, but are confident to shape it, lead within it, and help define the societies of tomorrow. Thank you for your precious attention.

Thank you very much, and we congratulate Uzbekistan for the incredible efforts in this area. I'm now pleased to give the floor to Her Excellency, Ms. Mama Noko Kubayi, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development of South Africa. Minister Kubayi brings extensive governmental experience across a number of ministerial portfolios and has also contributed to international discussions on emerging technologies, including through the World Economic Forum's Global Artificial Intelligence Council. Please, Minister, you have the floor.

Thank you very much. Good morning or good afternoon to you, UN, the OECD and fellow panelists. South Africa welcomes SAFETY as an important initiative and commends the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Government of the United Arab Emirates for bringing a renewed international focus to the growing challenge of technology-facilitated violence against women. The safety initiative comes at a critical moment as societies around the world seek to harness the opportunities of a digital age while confronting its emerging risk. Technology has transformed the way we live, work and participate in society. It has expanded access to education, entrepreneurship, justice, public service and political participation. It has enabled women and girls to build businesses, lead institutions, advocate for their communities, connect across borders in an unprecedented ways. However, as digital opportunities have expanded, so too have digital threats. Women and girls are increasingly subjected to online harassment, cyberstalking, image-based abuse, doxing and other forms of technology-facilitated violence that seeks to intimidate, silence and exclude them from public life. This harms and undermines safety, dignity, mental well-being and equal participation in our societies. Excellencies, for South Africa, the issue is particularly significant as the country continues to confront the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide. We therefore recognise that technology-facilitated violence against women is not simply a cybercrime issue, it is a human rights issue. It is an access to justice issue, and it is a developmental issue. Most importantly, it is a challenge to our collective commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women. South Africa has responded through a combination of legislative reforms, institutional strengthening, and technological innovation. Significant reforms have been undertaken to strengthen protections for victims of gender-based violence and femicide, improve accountability and enhance access to justice. These reforms were specifically designed to close legal gaps, strengthen victim protection and prevent secondary victimization. At the same time, we have embraced technology as an instrument of access to justice. South Africa has introduced online protection order services and electronic repositories for domestic violence protection orders to make justice service more accessible, responsive, and victim-centered. Through the integrated justice system, we continue to modernize and digitize the criminal justice value chain to improve service delivery and ensure that technology serves the interests of victims and communities. However, we are equally conscious that emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and deepfake technologies, are creating new threats that disproportionately affect women leaders, journalists, public representatives, activists and young women. This development requires the criminal justice system to continuously adapt in innovative and cooperative international and cooperate internationally. South Africa believes that our response must move beyond recognition of the problem towards concrete action. In this regard, South Africa commits itself to five priority areas over and above the ratification of the cyber crime convention and must confirm that we are committed and within the few months we will make sure that this happens because we believe the convention is a critical one and a really timely legal instrument that is needed by the world. From South Africa first, we will continue strengthening our legislative and policy frameworks to ensure that technology-facilitated violence against women is effectively prevented, investigated, prosecuted and punished. The most important thing for us is prevention. Our criminal justice system must evolve as rapidly as the technologies that criminals seek to exploit. Secondly, South Africa will accelerate the digital transformation of the justice sector through IJS to ensure greater accessibility, efficiency, and responsiveness, particularly for women, children, and vulnerable persons seeking justice, but more importantly for people in remote and rural areas, so that we avoid digital divide again as a form of another inequality. Thirdly, We will strengthen specialized support services for victims by improving digital reporting mechanisms, enhancing victim-centered responses, and building the capacity of prosecutors, investigators, magistrates, judges, and specialized courts to address online harms targeting women and girls. This will be in support of our sexual offenses courts that we have established as they remain central to this effort. Fourthly, we will invest in increasing women in science, technology, and engineering and mathematics. Digital literacy, cyber awareness, and online safety initiatives aimed at empowering women and girls to participate confidently, safely, and meaningfully in digital space. Digital inclusion must be accompanied by digital safety. Fifthly, South Africa will continue to strengthen international cooperation, technical assistance and capacity building efforts to combat technology facilitated violence against women and related cyber enabled crimes. No country can address these challenges in isolation effectively. Effective responses require partnerships across governments, international organizations, civil society, and the private technology sector. And this we will do in our period when we are chair of SADC, South African Development Cooperation regions in the southern region, to ensure that all countries can partner within Starting with Africa, expanding to the continent and therefore globally. We therefore welcome the launch of the Safety T Initiative and the Framework for Action on Enabling Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women as important contributions towards a coherent and coordinated global response. The accompanying digital safety toolkit and global hub for digital safety offer a practical instrument that can assist member states in translating commitments into action. As we navigate the digital age, we must ensure that technological progress advances human dignity, equality, and justice. Women should never be forced to choose between their safety and their participation in public life or digital space. Girls should never have their aspiration diminished by fear of abuse in digital space. Societies cannot achieve inclusive experience.

Very interested to know how technology is being adapted also for access justice. I congratulate you on that. Our final opening statement will be delivered by Ms. Alex Davies-Jones, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Victims, Violence Against Women and Girls and International Justice of the United Kingdom. A strong advocate for victims' rights, women's safety and access to justice, Minister Davies-Jones leads the UK's efforts to support victims of crime and tackle violence against women and girls. You have the floor.

Thank you, Amy. I am not quite sure what more I can add following the brilliant contributions from my sisters here, but I will try and I will keep it brief. Distinguished guests, your excellencies, friends, I sadly hear from victims on a daily basis about the devastating impacts of digital violence. But the damage, as we've already heard, goes far further than individual victims. The threat of this abuse has a chilling effect. women hold back from speaking out, they shy away from public debate and taking down more content, though that is hugely important. The real success will be when we no longer think twice about speaking up, when those who have the courage to lead can do so without calculating that the abuse might follow. There is no one solution that will get us there. It will take action on every front. I am proud that the United Kingdom is doing just that. We are taking action, whether that is banning vile nudification apps that only seek to humiliate and abuse women. We are criminalising taking or deepfaking intimate images without consent. We are making the tech companies and platforms responsible for taking these images down, and we are using technology in the right way, like hash matching, to stop them from reappearing. But this cannot be just for laws and technology to solve. We also have to change our culture, which is much harder. That means educating men and boys so that they understand the pain that online abuse can cause. And we need to learn to lift women up, not tear them down. So technology will keep evolving, it will keep changing, but so must our response to these crimes. And by working together in forums like this, by learning from each other, then we are able to get ahead of that threat. We can make sure that women and girls everywhere, wherever they are, can speak up, step forward, and lead. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Minister, also for sharing your personal experience and leadership in this area. We now move it to the second part of the event. Unfortunately, our time is very reduced, so what I propose is to have a rapid session of Q&A with the panelists, and I will come back to Ms. Juma for her concluding statement. Okay. So I would start with Minister Kabayi. South Africa has taken tremendous steps forward to tackle violence against women and promote victim-centered responses. In your view, what are the most important actions that governments can take to ensure that digital spaces remain safe for women leaders?

Thank you very much. I think the first issue tangibly is to make rules and legalise the cyberbullying. Unless we make it a law, people will continue, because if there is no punishment against it, it gets normalised. Again, the other issue is around awareness, and I would like to pull on the issue of culture. because culture as well sometimes is abused, is used wrongly in terms of people then justifying wrongdoing by culture. And therefore that is one of the issues that we've got to be able to advocate. Then the last point I want to talk about is about training. If our presiding officers and our judicial officers, our prosecutors and investigators are not properly trained to understand the impact of cyberbullying, they will not be able to have the response that we want, because a woman will go and report it and it can be brushed off. and not seen as a serious issue. Whereas if you train, for example, what we do at the country, the lessons that we've learned around gender-based violence, it was because of different cultures. We had to do training of those that are working in police service, those are working as prosecutors, those are working as presiding officers, and have specialized course and everybody trained to understand. that secondary victimisation is possible and can be done by officials, even officers of court. We have to be able to train properly so that everybody can respond properly and appropriately to this crime. Thank you.

Thank you very much, minister. I will now turn to Minister Alex Davies-Jones. Addressing technology-facilitated violence requires cooperation between governments, criminal justice institutions, and technology companies. What approaches have proven most effective, in your view, in promoting accountability for online harms while ensuring that digital spaces remain safe?

We cannot do this alone. We need collaboration both across our legal systems, our enforcement agencies, with the tech platforms themselves. They need to be held accountable for the harm that is occurring on their sites. So by working in partnership on new legislation, on new regulatory frameworks like we've done in the UK, we have been able to introduce new criminal offences, as I've said, on intimate images, on harmful *********** on tackling really, really illegal abuse online. Because what is illegal offline should be illegal online. There is no blur, there's no distinction anymore between the online and offline world. We all live in an ever more connected world and therefore our laws have to keep up at that pace to evolve to work with them. But that also means that law enforcement, our police, needs to be able to catch up and be educated and trained in response to this, working with our judiciary on their training and then victim support as well-being able to highlight where that is. Because what I would say is something we have seen in the United Kingdom is that where these crimes occur online, they very really stay online. They will follow into the offline world. They do cause real-world harm. A lot of people have said, "Oh, it's not real. It's happening online." But it does have a huge impact on the victims and on society, and that's why we need to tackle it.

Thank you, Minister. I think that's a very important point about the continuum of violence between offline and online elements. My last question is then for Ms. Nadira. Uzbekistan has placed an emphasis on strengthening opportunities for women's leadership and a whole of society approach. In your view, how can we ensure that these efforts promote safer spaces for women?

Thank you for your question. If you allow, I answer in Russian.

Okay.

You noted quite rightly that in Uzbekistan, the issue of women's leadership is one that was tackled at the level of the government. The president, who is the head of the administration, and Mr. Shavkat Mirziyoyev have all backed this policy, and they're carrying it out very actively. As a result of this, in the country, we've created an interagency commission. One which is headed by the President of the Senate. The Senate is the highest chamber of our parliament. That is the level at which things are being taken care of. An agenda strategy running through to 2030 has been elaborated, and it provides four steps to increase the number of women represented in all fields of our country's life, at least 30 percent. is an indicator we are aiming for. We've achieved this in Parliament. We also want to see this in the judicial system and in other judicial decision-making bodies. So the protection of women, protecting them from online threats, from cyber threats, is something that is done at a systemic level, you have noted quite rightly. and so did our sister from the UK and Southern Africa, that of course the important is the cultural element. It's fundamental, and it's also backed by the state's policy, and there is economic support. And of course, we have criminalized such crimes. In Uzbekistan, the issue of forming women leaders is something that starts at the youngest age. For example, especially gifted girls from the youngest age are prepared for leadership positions. We have an academy of women's leaders, and I can share with you that very recently, a few days ago, we adopted a decree against harassment in the workplace, where we guarantee the protection of women As I said, we protect them. We have an online platform which is available to record every case of online or cyber harassment. We're also criminalizing online grooming, sexual crimes, and the dissemination of deepfakes. So by criminalizing such acts, Our country is working to improve things, so we also have an app, an app with a special button, an alert button, which ensures that there is a reaction within 35 minutes of law enforcement And these law enforcement brigades responsible for this provide assistance to victims. So I'd like to tell you that in our country, we have broad work being carried out, and it encompasses all aspects, starting from the culture, the economic aspects, and of course, also training future women leaders, helping them to create their companies. And all of this is guaranteed by legislation. We have also criminalized any violations or any attacks against women, including online. Thank you.

Thank you very much for sharing this comprehensive response from first responders to legislation. Again, another example for us to learn from. We are concluding the panel shortly, but it's my pleasure to return to Madam Executive Director for any, perhaps any reflections on this very distinguished group of female leaders. And we, you know, we express our gratitude to them and we look forward to hearing from you about any last thoughts.

Thank you very much. At a Congress that is looking at the next five years on crime prevention and rule of law, this matter becomes a significant one. Because over the last decades, the world has been in consensus about empowering women, protecting women's rights, and we have made a lot of progress. So I dare say we have a battle in our hands. If we are going to improve the dignity of people of days, the digital, the technology advancement is shaping our world and is going to be a separating factor into the future. So it is imperative that this becomes everyone's task to make sure that we protect the abuse of women, that we protect technology being weaponized against the rights and dignity of women.

Thank you very much, Madam Juma, for those inspiring remarks. Thank you to the audience for joining us. It's been delightful to moderate this discussion. The safety initiative is really just at the very beginning, so we invite to hear from you. We welcome to discuss with delegations. We would love to take this forward. We express our great appreciation to the General Women's Union, our partner from the UAE for this work. We have developed a digital toolbox to help prevent to help promote safety for women leaders. We will have e-learning courses available and we look forward to taking forward this conversation. Thank you very much.