On day twelve of our ‘Sixteen Activists or Organisations Around the Globe Fighting to End Digital Violence Against all Women and Girls‘ campaign, human rights activist Ljubica Fuentes discusses her NGO, activism in Ecuador’s hostile political context and her ambition for a future shaped by safe digital spaces, feminist leadership and collective action.
Digital abuse is ubiquitous, blurring the boundaries between online and offline environments, crossing over borders, platforms and screens. Ljubica Fuentes, now a human rights lawyer, learned this the hard way during her time as a law student at Ecuador’s largest public university. After publicly objecting to a professor’s sexist claim that women can’t be “real lawyers,” Ljubica became a target of horrific digital and offline abuse. Peers labelled her a “Femi-Nazi,” and this quickly escalated into a coordinated campaign of harassment.
Threatening messages flooded her Instagram inbox and Facebook page, warning her to stop advocating for women’s rights. She received rape threats. When a rumour surfaced that someone had been hired to physically assault her, Ljubica made the difficult decision to flee Ecuador overnight, taking refuge in a semester abroad. That experience would go on to shape her life’s work. Today, she is a human rights lawyer and the founder of an organisation dedicated to ending gender-based violence in higher education.
In 2020, at just 22, she became the youngest Civil Society Advisor for UN Women Ecuador and was announced as a national gender activist. She graduated in Law, moved back to her country and founded the Feminist University Coalition, the first civil society space in Ecuador combatting gender-based violence in higher education.
In 2022, she founded the Fundación Ciudadanas del Mundo (Citizens of the World Foundation), an independent initiative focused on promoting gender equality, human rights and access to justice, particularly within higher education and transnational contexts. Ljubica explains that her experience as a survivor of gender-based violence in higher education drove her to start an NGO. Her desire is to create “a safe space where I could talk about this problem and help other women, so nobody has to survive {this} again.”
In this interview, Ljubica discusses the personal cost of digital activism, from threats and lost opportunities to the emotional toll of online abuse. She reflects on founding Fundación Ciudadanas del Mundo to create safe spaces, leading youth-focused digital campaigns and partnering with CARE Ecuador to support safer activism. She shares insights from her global advocacy with UN Women’s ACT Programme, calls for urgent legal reform on digital violence and outlines her vision for a safer digital future.
What has your experience been like advocating in the digital violence space, as a human rights lawyer, founder and survivor yourself? Have you encountered any particular barriers along the way?
It´s hard, human rights activism has a really high cost when you decide to make your face known. I´ve faced death threats, withdrawal of job offers, limits in scholarships. But also, you have so many people around the globe cheering for you and your work. Digital violence can take everything away, because angry people with bad intentions are more likely to post a comment. For me it has been a constant questioning of what do I want to say in my platforms? Is it safe? Can I show the people I love the things I do?
Could you describe the initiatives you’ve led or been involved in to address digital violence against women and girls, particularly in education settings? What impact has this work had?
Fundación Ciudadanas del Mundo is the civil society organisation I have the honor to run. We create safe spaces in education to ensure the permanence of women and girls. Of course, digital violence represents a great deal of our work. We do a lot of online campaigns with information on how to do early identification of violence to prevent it from scaling. We do online courses, education and workshops for young people. In November we launched a project with CARE Ecuador about safe spaces in activism and work with three organisations for young people in how to improve their organisation to ensure the access and permanence of young women by creating a safe environment.
What has your involvement with UN Women’s ACT Programme been like, and how has it supported or amplified the grassroots feminist movement you’re leading?
The ACT Programme is an amazing dream. It has been one of the most exciting opportunities of my life to be able to go around the world talking with decision makers about gender perspective investments and how to make a difference by financing programs that are making local impacts go global. This opportunity has taught me voices from every background and corner of the world have a story worth telling which can change the understanding we have of the world. It is vital to see the impact we can do in the life of women and girls. This program has allowed me to tell important national decision makers how important it is to invest in laws with gender perspectives that will help ensure the life we want, free of violence.
Are you seeing increased awareness and action around emerging forms of digital abuse towards women and girls in Ecuador?
Without a doubt, the work grassroots and youth led organisations are doing to keep the human rights agenda alive in the backlash of Latin America, especially in Ecuador, is amazing and heartbreaking. We are taking to the streets, going out to protest without fear, which seems like crazy in the context we have now, with activists being targeted by the government and more than 349 women murdered. Even though in Ecuador organised crime and the absence of government keeps growing, so does the action of social organisations like mine, trying to change the world one classroom at the time.
From your perspective, what changes are most urgently needed at the policy, platform or societal level to meaningfully address digital sexual violence?
We need law that addresses this issue. In many parts of the world, digital sexual violence is not registered as an offense and has no means to be proved. This limits the access to justice of women and girls, due to the lack of lawyers prepared to address this issue. Also, we need more legislators willing to speak about this issue. There is a long road ahead of us, with AI and new technologies trying to compromise the integrity of women and girls. That is why we need science with gender perspectives and ethical use of digital platforms, with a strong commitment against digital violence. We must create an ecosystem to fight this issue. Together with governments, the private sector and gender equality activists we can end this pandemic.
What are your hopes for ending digital violence towards women and girls and the part your organisation will continue to play in such a complex task?
My hope is that the private sector and enterprises realise how good of an investment it is to hire professionals with gender perspectives, or experts in gender equality. The not so far future will demand of the digital world they control to be safe, to take responsibility for the acts and felonies committed, investing in gender equality and having people to create new politics and integral solutions. Gender perspective compliance is a safe and smart investment to prevent the falling out of the digital world and social media. We already have grassroots organisations working in that, investing in financing new apps with gender perspectives or advocacy for the change in laws. We will protect the digital future for women and girls.
For our organisation the goal is to create more safe spaces that can develop a rolling effect, so that they by themselves create a safe society. We know the future of advocacy is digital and we will keep beating the drum for a safer world offline and online, where no women has to be afraid of speaking out loud and expressing herself.
