Cooper to pledge global action to end online abuse of women and girls

Abuse of women and girls is “crossing borders at unprecedented scale and speed”, the Foreign Secretary is set to warn on Tuesday.

Speaking at the launch of a global coalition aimed at tackling violence against women and girls, Yvette Cooper will announce new British efforts to deal with online abuse.

Ms Cooper is expected to announce a £4.85 million package from the UK’s integrated security fund to support, among other things, the expansion of an online platform that helps websites block the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.

Arguing that “technological change means abuse is crossing borders at unprecedented scale and speed”, she is expected to describe the global response as “completely inadequate”.

And she will pledge to help make violence against women and girls part of policies for peace in countries including Sudan and Ukraine.

Ms Cooper is expected to make the announcement at the launch of the “All In” coalition.

Founded by the UK, the Ford Foundation and the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, the coalition brings together a panel of leading campaigners to bring greater attention to violence against women and girls as a global emergency.

The UK will be represented by former Labour minister Baroness Harriet Harman, with other members including former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Mozambican politician Graca Machel.

It comes as the Government prepares to publish a strategy laying out how it intends to deliver on Labour’s election promise to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.

Ms Cooper will say: “Numbers alone are inadequate but they should shock us nonetheless.

“One in every three women and girls worldwide will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, 140 women and girls killed every day by a partner or close relative.”

She will add: “So I pledge to go all in as Foreign Secretary, working to ensure that women and girls around the world can thrive and flourish, free from violence and free from fear.”