Newsletter #65
Feature
SURVEY ON HONG KONG WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES OF VIOLENCE 2021
The Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities (WCEO), sponsored by Zonta Club of Kowloon and a research grant from Lingnan University, conducted a study on Hong Kong women’s experiences of violence in 2021. A similar study of a smaller scale was conducted by the WCEO in 2013. The present study aims to provide updated empirical data on the issue.The target sample are women living in Hong Kong aged 15-64. The research consists of a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews. A total of 1044 responses were received for the survey and 30 individuals were interviewed individually or in focus groups. Below are the major findings of the survey.
Near 40% of the respondents has experienced sexual violence
37.54% of valid responses reported having experienced sexual violence in their lifetime. The most commonly experienced forms are ‘discussing sexual topics’ that caused discomfort (28.91%), ‘non-penetrative sexual assault’ (28.39%). and ‘unwanted sexual attention’ (17.97%). Around 10% of them have experienced “penetrative sexual assault”（9.90%）.
Over 90% of all perpetrators were male (92.49%) and more than 60% of the perpetrators were persons known to the victims, including former partners (11.11%), friends (9.38%), family members or relatives (8.15%), and other persons who are known to the victims (such as classmates and co-workers). 75% of respondents did not react to the incident when it occurred. 60.3% of respondents said they have sought help, most commonly through telling family or friends. It is noteworthy that near 40% of victims did not seek help.
One out of four reported having experienced intimate partner violence
26.37% of respondents reported having experienced intimate partner violence, including physical assault, verbal assault, economic control and stalking. The most commonly experienced forms are sexual violence (35.52%), verbal insults or threats (22.01%) and physical violence (14.29%).
Approximately 90% of the perpetrators were male (88.97%). More than half of the respondents have sought help. 12.27% sought help from social service agencies or professionals, and 11.82% sought separation or divorce. A significant proportion (9.09%) sought help from mental health professionals.
Number of women seeking help still needs to be improved
Exceed 40% of victims of sexual violence or victims of intimate partner violence did not seek help. Reasons given for not seeking help include feeling embarrassed or ashamed, fear that others would not believe them or would blame them and fear of causing trouble or worried that may worsen the relationship with the perpetrator. Some victims of intimate partner violence are concerned about the safety of the kids and themselves or are not able to leave their partners and therefore, they did not ask for help.
Analysis of the qualitative data shows that the lack of awareness and unavailability of clear information about sexual violence create barriers to help-seeking. For instance, a respondent reported that the information she searched online was too ambiguous to give her a clear answer that she was being sexually harassed. There are also victims of intimate partner violence failed to recognize non-consensual sex within intimate relationship is sexual violence. Even worse, they thought that it is their obligation to satisfy husband’s sexual need, regardless of their willingness.
Multiple types of violence causing mental and physical harm
Victims of Intimate partner violence typically suffer from more than one type of violence, such as sexual violence, psychological and emotional abuse, economic and social control, etc, causing devastating damage to women’s mental health and making them feel helpless.
Emotional and practical needs of victimized women
After experiencing sexual violence or intimate partner violence, victims might have many negative feelings, such as insecurity, depression, anxiety, self-blame, helplessness, anger as well as distrust in intimate relationships and not being understood by their peers. Stakeholders in the society need to provide support to the victimized women, assisting them to get out of the adversity.
Recommendations
Relevant government departments should provide adequate crisis support to women who are subjected to violence in three aspects: crisis support, policy change and legal reform. These include:
1. Provide comprehensive crisis support to victimized women
• Sexual violence crisis support: Victims of sexual violence often need to visit different departments in order to receive medico-legal care (e.g. hospital, police station and forensic service) right after the assault happened, creating secondary trauma. In 2018, the Legislative Council endorsed the need to establish crisis support centres for victims of sexual violence. We urge that the government speed up the funding approval process for implementation, and ensure that these centres should follow the “Guidelines for medico-legal care for victims of sexual violence” according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Financial and housing support: Many female victims of intimate partner violence are economically dependent on their partners and are often the main caregivers of children. We recommend that the government set up emergency funds to help them cope during crisis situations. Intimate partner violence and sexual violence often occur in homes, making it a priority that victims have suitable housing options to turn to. We urge the government to review the existing compassionate rehousing scheme, specifically to clarify and streamline the application process for women who share a home with violence perpetrators. A greater variety of shelter options apart from women’s refuge (e.g. hotels) should be available so that women can have timely, safe and suitable accommodation during crisis situations.
• Increase funding to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) servicing female victims of violence: The government needs to increase funding to NGOs that provide services such as crisis support, temporary shelter, legal advice and counselling to female victims of violence. We also recommend that liaison and coordination amongst different service agencies be improved through, e.g., the integration and upgrading of helpline services of different NGOs, so that women do not have to search for separate agencies for the variety of support that they need.
2. Improve policy, legal and professional training provisions
• Employers need to establish sexual harassment policies and provide training for staff: Currently, there are no consequences to employers who ignore the Equal Opportunities Commission’s (EOC) recommendation to establish sexual harassment policies and staff training, nor are there incentives for employers to do so. We recommend that the EOC and relevant government departments make it a requirement for employers to establish sexual harassment policies and sexual harassment training to their staff, and to monitor their execution.
• Speed up reforms on sex crimes legislation: The Law Reform Commission (LRC) began its consultation on reforming laws on sex crimes in 2012 and many recommendations in the LRC’s 2019 report, including important changes to laws on sexual assault and definitions of consent had yet to be put on the agenda of the Legislative Council. We urge that the government address the LRC’s recommendations as soon as possible.
• Modernize the Family Court: The Family Court plays an important role in serving justice to women who suffer from intimate partner violence. More resources are needed to improve its efficiency and capacity to handle the variety and complexity of cases it receives.
3. Public education by stakeholders through a variety of media and means
• Educate the public about sexual and intimate partner violence: Public education materials are needed in order to equip women with information about women’s rights and relevant laws in Hong Kong and to encourage them to seek help. Many people do not realize that the emotional and mental abuse are a form of violence against women and children with serious consequences. Public education should help the public understand the definitions and nature of sexual and intimate partner violence, when and how to seek help, so that they can provide support to family and friends should it occur.
• Address sexual violence in public transport and schools: We recommend public transport operators increase their effort to alert passengers that sexual violence, including indecent assault and image based sexual violence are criminal offences. Similarly, schools need to incorporate sexual violence into their sex education curriculum. We urge that the government review its guidelines on sex education for schools (last updated in 1997) as soon as possible. At the same time, teachers shall be offered the knowledge and skills in identifying sexual violence in their training package.
Report summary: https://womencentre.org.hk/En/Newsroom/Pressrelease/svdv_2022/Upload/press/89/Download/6224b44d31ee2.pdf
Full report: https://bit.ly/3zM7bo3
Hear Me Out
INTERNATIONAL WEBINAR ON IMAGE-BASED SEXUAL VIOLENCE
International Webinar (‘the Webinar’) on Image-Based Sexual Violence (IBSV) was held on 19 May, with 7 speakers from Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and the United States sharing their experiences on combating technology-based abusive behaviours. The Webinar was conducted in two sessions, discussing the emerging prevalence and trends of Image-Based Sexual Violence in Asia and the responding legislative measures addressing the issue regionally and globally.
Prevalence and Trends of Image-Based Sexual Violence in Asia
The current situations of Image-Based Sexual Violence and the challenges while implementing initiatives and measures were shared and discussed in the first session. The ascending prevalence of IBSV could be observed across the Asia countries. Ms Shailey Hingorani, Head of Advocacy, Research and Communications at the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) indicated the ascending number of Technology- Facilitated Sexual Violence cases received by Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC) in Singapore from year 2017 to 2021. In year 2021, 7 out of 10 of Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence cases notably involved image-based sexual abuse.
Concurrently, new forms and trends of image-based abusive behaviours were discovered on both regional and global level. For instance, Kevin Chang, the Secretary General of Women In Digital Initiative (WIDI) reported the gravity of ‘deepfake pornography’ in Taiwan. All 119 victim-survivors of the Telegram group called ‘Taiwan Influencers Face Swap’ are women. Deepfake videos are created with deep learning technology with artificial intelligence, and 90-95% of all deepfake videos involve non-consensual pornographic content, according to the report of Sensity AI. Other speakers also highlighted the difficulties in regulating messaging apps that provide End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) services in messaging as non-consensual materials could not be detected, neither by the host nor the cybersecurity. A salient example is Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform which has no regulatory policies towards malicious behaviours such as terrorism, rampant misogyny and other forms of abuse.
Shailey reviewed that around 80% of the perpetrators were known to the victim-survivors beforehand in SACC cases, however, IBSV victim-survivors are still facing obstacles in seeking justice through the current judicial system. Their non-consensual contents were usually widespread on various online platforms in which there is a deadlock of taking down all the abusive materials. Though the loophole within policies of online platforms were alarmed by NGO workers and researchers in recent years, regulating online platforms would always provoke backlash by the industry and the public, mentioned by Yeojin Kim, the Director of Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Center (KCSVRC). Public stigmatisation of sexual violence victim-survivors, on the other hand, also obstructs them from seeking help. Kevin stated that all the 30 victims of deepfake pornography that WIDI tried to approach refused to report their situation to the police as most of them were afraid of the vengeful acts by the perpetrators. When current measures could not prevent those insulting behaviours, victims would be completely exposed to the intangible dangers. The act of publicizing survivors’ experience by media would cause unwanted distress to the survivors and thus, re-traumatization suffered by them.
Besides, Yeojin pointed out the misunderstandings towards sexual violence in Korean society, which echo with the observation from the research conducted by Dr. Annie Chan. Dr. Chan’s study was collaborated with Caritas Specialised Treatment and Prevention Project Against Sexual Violence “Long Tin”, examining the ‘upskirting’ culture in Hong Kong. It was discovered that the perpetrators misunderstood the meaning of sexual violence as BDSM practice in a high chance, meanwhile, the dissemination of ‘upskirting’ or ‘downblousing’ behaviours were found to be accustomed to the secret filming of paparazzi culture which causes the perpetrators not classifying those behaviours as a kind of sexual violence. It is crucial to raise the public’s awareness of sexual violence the knowledge of digital or technological forms of abuse. This might prevent the IBSV victim-survivors away from being marginalised and encourage them to come out to seek help.
Legislative Response to Image-Based Sexual Violence
Comprehensive legal reform that outlaws a wide range of IBSV behaviors has been proposed and introduced globally, attempting to plug the deficiencies of current judicial systems and measures. For instance, new laws of four offences and court order came into effect in October 2021 in Hong Kong, including voyeurism, unlawful recording or observation of intimate parts, publication and threatened publication of intimate images without consent and disposal order. Similarly, in South Korea Sexual Violence Punishment law was revised after the ‘Nth Room Case’ to penalize the person who possess, purchase, store and watch illegal intimate images. There is also a great leap in the United States where 48 states and 2 territories, as well as Washington DC have criminalized Non-Consensual Pornography (NCP) in the moment, compared to only 3 states legislating against NCP in 2013. In the UK, the Online Safety Bill has been contemplated by the Parliament to introduce a new set of offences focusing on protecting children and adults from cyber abuse. Many countries and regions are catching up with the global trend of legislation, and yet, advocates and authorities are still facing obstacles in putting forth both judicial and legal reform in their countries.
In reality, however, IBSV victim-survivors are being constantly failed by the law, by the police and by the court. As mentioned by Jacey Kan, the Advocacy Officer of ACSVAW, the unidentifiable abusers who appear on cyber world hinder IBSV victim-survivors from reporting their cases to the police. The complainants are likely rejected by the police to initiate investigation if they could not name the identity of the abusers. Most of the jurisdiction in the States lighten the offence of IBSV to be a kind of misdemeanour, which determines the paucity of resources to pursue those cases, shared by Dr. Mary Anne Franks, the President and Legislative & Tech Policy Director of Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI). The current judicial system evidently does not put much weight on IBSV cases even the police possess the most powerful investigatory power, the door is closed right before the survivors taking legal action. Civil route is another path for victim to seek justice, even so, Honza Červenka, the Associate of McAllister Olivarius commented that it is hard and laborious for lawyers to search for the evidence to build a successful case against the perpetrator, besides, monetary and time cost of in pursuit of civil remedies put heavy burden on the victim-survivors.
Inasmuch as some technology laws absolve Internet and social media companies of legal responsibilities for hosting contents that involved abusive contents in their regions due to the principle of freedom of speech. Both Dr. Franks and Honza depicted the dilemma on regulating online platforms. In light of the above protection law, the platforms have no real incentives to work against IBSV, meanwhile evade all the responsibilities for any abuse that happens on their platforms. It is highly controversial to regulate the Internet and fierce debate could be foreseen in the future on this topic.
Image-Based Sexual Violence is evolving with technology, there are mutations, variations other forms of cutting-edge technology issues which makes IBSV hard to legislate. Despite the challenges foreseen in advocacy or new laws and initiatives, it is incumbent on the internet companies, law enforcement agencies and judicial institutions to tighten up the regulations on online platforms. Technology-based sexual abusive is a global phenomenon and it requires coordination and collaboration among international organisations to work hand in hand.