Guidelines on Responsible Representation and Reporting of Violence against Women and Violence against Children

"It is essential that communications on violence against women and violence against children improve the situation rather than cause further harm, such as re-traumatising survivors or confusing those who urgently need help."

These guidelines promote responsible, ethical, and safe representation and reporting of violence against women and violence against children for public advocacy purposes, such as media coverage and awareness-raising campaigns. Developed by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and UN Women in the Asia-Pacific region, they are intended for media practitioners, UN country offices, and other development and civil society organisations seeking to enhance and prioritise messaging and communications on violence against women and violence against children amid and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objective of the guidelines is to raise awareness about the sensitivity of reporting on and communicating about violence against women and violence against children, with the ultimate result hopefully being: better informed media and communications practitioners; more empowering messages, visuals, and communications content that will have greater impact; and a way of working with survivors as subjects who have agency while doing no harm and benefitting all involved.

As stated in the guide, "While the causes, risk factors, prevalence, patterns and consequences of violence against women and violence against children may differ, many of the considerations for ethically, safely and effectively communicating these issues are crosscutting."

This resource contains two main sections:

• Overview: Violence against women and violence against children - offers definitions of key terms and looks at the causes, manifestations, and consequences of violence against women and violence against children, as well as the impact COVID-19 is having on this kind of violence.
• Crucial considerations for development communications content on violence against women and violence against children - focuses on:
  1. Ethically engaging with survivors of violence against women and violence against children: explores best practices for those creating communications content about particular incidents of violence against women and violence against children, including using survivors' real-life experiences in, or to inform, communications content. It places particular emphasis on appropriate engagement with survivors (such as informed consent), including interviews and visual documentation of their stories.
  2. Responsibly representing violence against women and violence against children in communications and advocacy content: looks at the importance of checking facts, use of language, ways of presenting violence, specific messaging around violence, and maintaining objectivity.
  3. Testing messages: explores content, messages, and visuals that are meant to prompt a specific behaviour or (re)shape an attitude, particularly among large segments of the population, noting that the messages should be pre-tested with representatives of the participant groups for whom the communications are intended. This is especially relevant for social media campaigns, videos, advertisements, and informational products.

The appendix includes: sources of referral services for gender-based violence survivors; examples of reporting and representation of violence against women and of gender-blind media reports and entertainment posters (e.g., see the below campaign video from a UN Women campaign referenced in the appendix); and samples of written consent forms.

The guidelines have been summarised and adapted specifically for media professionals in a separate document that can be accessed below.