„Of all the evils for which man has made

himself responsible, none is so degrading,

so shocking or so brutal as his abuse of the

better half of humanity; the female sex.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Sexist hate speech is one form of expression of sexism. It is rampant in Europe and beyond and disproportionally targets women.Sexist hate speech takes many forms both online and offline, including victim blaming and re-victimisation; “slut-shaming”;body-shaming;“revenge porn”; brutal and sexualised threats of death, rape and violence; offensive comments on appearance,sexuality, sexual orientation or gender roles; false compliments or so-called jokes to humiliate and ridicule the target. Sexist hatespeech is a form of violence against women and girls that perpetuates and exacerbates gender inequality. It undermines freedomof speech for women and girls, and has serious and severe emotional and/or physical effects on its targets.

You are invited to join a side event to discuss the causes and forms of sexist hate speech, its targets, impact and measuresneeded to curb it. Organised by the Council of Europe and the Permanent Missions of Cyprus, Bulgaria, Belgium, Andorra andLiechtenstein to the United Nations on the occasion of the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the side eventaims at raising awareness and knowledge of the Council of Europe standards and action to tackle sexist hate speech, to encouragea debate on the issue, and strengthen partnerships to increase the impact of the work and efforts in this area.

THE PANEL CONSISTS OF:

- Eva Fehringer, Chair of the Council of Europe Gender Equality

Commission

- Mary Papadopoulos, President of the Cyprus Federation of

Business and Professional Women

- Isabelle Simonis, Minister of Adult Learning, Youth, Women’s

Rights and Equal Opportunities, French Community of Belgium

- Carmen Moreno, Executive Secretary, Inter-American

Commission of Women, Organization of American States (OAS)

- Genoveva Tisheva, Managing Director, Bulgarian Gender

Research Foundation, Chair of the Alliance for Protection against

Gender-Based Violence

Moderator:

Marja Ruotanen, Director of Human Dignity and Equality,

Council of Europe

Date: 14 March 2017

Time: 3.00 - 4.15 pm

Venue: Conference Room A, UN HQ,New York

Contacts:

New York: Cypriot Permanent Mission to the United Nations

RSVP@cyprusun.org