Authoritarian countries are leveraging social media to set back progress for women worldwide, a Canadian special envoy says, as Ottawa refreshes its cross-government gender policy.

Canada鈥檚 ambassador for women, peace and security, Jacqueline O鈥橬eill, says these threats require supporters of gender equality around the world to work together.

Western countries must help buck a global trend of strongmen leaders seeking to prevent women from having meaningful roles in public life, she said in a recent interview.

鈥淎uthoritarian governments are very much cracking down on space for communities to organize, for the media to have free speech and for women鈥檚 rights activists to pursue their work,鈥� said O鈥橬eill, who advocates for women both abroad and at home.

She pointed to research such as that of Harvard University professor Erica Chenoweth, who has documented how resistance movements are more successful when they integrate women in leadership and frontline roles.

One way that governments are trying to stifle such opposition is by using social media to support, spread and even fund a narrative that women鈥檚 rights are a foreign import meant to challenge traditional values, O鈥橬eill said.

She calls it technology facilitated gender-based violence.

Women in Canada are no strangers to online harassment.

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon convened female politicians, activists and journalists last year to strategize on how to deal with vile online abuse.

And Global Affairs Canada has started adding security expenses to grants it gives to human-rights activists abroad, O鈥橬eill said, for everything from physical office locks to training on digital hygiene so people can protect themselves online.

The department says Liberal ministers approved the third national action plan on women, peace and security in December.

The recently approved policy is meant to provide guidance across the government 鈥� from its approach to diplomatic summits to how it conducts domestic policing and welfare programs.

Though it has not been released publicly and O鈥橬eill said she can鈥檛 share the details, she suggested it will address online harms.

She signalled it will also include considerations around how climate can affect women鈥檚 security.

鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing a lot of armed groups around the world taking advantage of climate disruptions to both recruit women into their forces (and) to abduct girls to be, effectively, sex slaves,鈥� she said.

She noted that natural disasters and other climate emergencies, such as drought, can cause families to pull their girls out of school so they can work or be part of forced marriages.

As part of her role, O鈥橬eill was in East Africa last month taking stock of the situation for women in countries that recently experienced conflict but have since lost global attention.

鈥淲e wanted to convey that they鈥檙e equally important to us now, and that we鈥檙e equally engaged,鈥� she said.

There, too, she heard activists speak to an increasing chill on their freedom of speech.

O鈥橬eill visited the Tigray region in Ethiopia, where a terrible war ended in late 2022. Hundreds of thousands of people died and there were widespread accounts of rape.

There, she said she met with women who were receiving help because of Canadian aid as they recovered from sexual violence perpetrated by militants.

鈥淭hey did things like inserting objects in women鈥檚 wombs that would prevent them from ever having babies again,鈥� she described.

Many survivors said they鈥檇 been knocked out during these attacks, and only learned what happened years later when an infection emerged or they couldn鈥檛 get pregnant, and medical tests found evidence of foreign objects such as nails or rocks.

鈥淭here was an ethnic dimension to this in wanting them to never reproduce,鈥� said O鈥橬eill, emphasizing that systemic acts such as those go beyond domestic or gender-based violence.

鈥淚t鈥檚 equally horrific, but it also requires a different kind of response, and it requires justice on a different level.鈥�

The Canadian envoy said she saw a concerning lack of services to reintegrate women in the country 鈥� meaning efforts to allow women to resume employment, including in politics, rather than being left to provide basic services and support to their communities in the wake of war.

In Mozambique, O鈥橬eill saw that reintegration has been a major part of the effort to help reach a lasting peace following a long civil war.

The success of the country鈥檚 2019 peace treaty depends in part on making sure female combatants are included in reintegration efforts, she said.

In Kenya, O鈥橬eill visited a training centre for peacekeepers that tries to reconcile the roles of police, military and civilians in conflict areas.

She said the curriculum included information about how to find signs of sexual violence on a systemic level.

The training might help Kenyan police officers on a planned deployment to Haiti, O鈥橬eill said, as part of a mission that aims to stabilize the Caribbean country for which Canada announced a $80.5-million contribution on Thursday.

O鈥橬eill is not the only envoy in the international community with a title focused on women, peace and security.

But the Canadian version of that role is unique, O鈥橬eill said.

In addition to advocating for women abroad and telling their stories to Canadians, she is also tasked with seeing what Canada can learn from how countries rich and poor are making gains for women.

鈥淓very country in the world has something to share about what they鈥檙e doing,鈥� O鈥橬eill said 鈥� and 鈥渟o many things to learn.鈥�

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Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press