National campaign begins to combat gender-based violence in Sri Lanka

THE national program, ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV)’ was kicked off recently at the BMICH. The initiative was jointly led by the UNFPA, the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, and supported by the Government of Canada.

- By Safna MALIK

From left: Colombo University undergraduate Isuru Manchanayake, Moderator Digital Transformation and AI Governance Specialist Asela Waidyalankara, Attorney-at-Law Isuru Mahesh, Sisterhood Initiative Founder and Co-Director Nabeela Iqbal, and Nuwara Eliya Journalist Yadhusha Ravi Thivagarajah.

This year’s campaign focused on the global theme: “UNiTE to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls.” This annual action, started on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, will go until 10 December, Human Rights Day.

The UNFPA Sri Lanka and Maldives Officer-in-Charge Phuntsho Wangyel in his opening remarks emphasised the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the digital sphere and its rapid advancement, while noting a crucial digital safety gap: the inability to detect hate content in Sinhala or Tamil.

He explained that while AI tools are trained in Natural Language Processing (NLP), the capacity to process and refine these complex systems for other languages remains under development, and the current lack of effective moderation presents an immediate and serious threat globally.

Wangyel presented key findings from the 2025 research study, showing the most common forms of online harms are the creation of fake profiles (36.9%) and sharing obscene texts/ videos (36.9%). Other issues reported include doctored images (25.2%), unauthorised exposure of personal information (doxxing) (24.3%), gender trolling (24.3%), and cyber blackmail (20.4%). He said creating safe digital spaces are necessary to achieve gender equality, youth empowerment, and inclusive national development.