A 14-year-old Indian youth advocate, Tarangini Sharma of Rajasthan Samgrah Kalyan Sansthan (RSKS India), addressed the 63rd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland on 25 September 2026, calling for binding global standards to protect women and girls from technology-facilitated violence. Sharma delivered her remarks during an Interactive Dialogue with the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, drawing international attention to deepfakes, non-consensual intimate imagery, and the systemic failures that leave survivors without adequate redress.

What Sharma Said at the Council

Speaking via virtual intervention, Sharma told delegates that digital violence does not remain behind a screen. 'No woman should ever have to choose between using technology and protecting her dignity, safety and life,' she told the Council. She cited fabricated images capable of disrupting a girl's education, doxxing that can drive women from public life, and cyberstalking that may escalate beyond the digital sphere as concrete illustrations of the harm at stake.

Sharma also pointed to structural gaps survivors face: fragmented legal protections across jurisdictions, sluggish platform response times, and reporting mechanisms that can compound rather than relieve trauma. Her core message was pointed — digital safety must be embedded into technology from the design stage, not retrofitted after harm occurs.

Key Demands Placed Before the UNHRC

Sharma's intervention outlined a multi-pronged agenda. She called for survivor-centred global standards requiring safety-by-design from digital platforms and artificial intelligence developers. She demanded rapid multilingual reporting systems backed by trained human reviewers, and stronger protections specifically against abusive deepfakes and non-consensual intimate imagery.

She further urged member states to establish specialised cyber-violence units, reinforce cross-border preservation of digital evidence, and guarantee survivors timely legal, psychosocial, and emergency assistance. On the question of algorithmic accountability, Sharma proposed independent gender-impact audits of AI-driven content systems.

A Global Innovation Fund for Marginalised Women

Placing inclusion at the heart of her address, Sharma proposed the creation of a global innovation fund to support women-led organisations developing accessible digital safety solutions. The fund, she argued, should specifically target rural women, women with disabilities, and women active in public life — groups disproportionately exposed to online abuse yet least served by existing mechanisms.

'Technology must expand women's freedom, not multiply the reach of perpetrators,' she said, challenging the international community to translate principles into measurable action with clear timelines and accountability indicators.

Context and Significance

Sharma's address comes as the UNHRC Advisory Committee deepens its examination of technology-facilitated gender-based violence against women and girls — a theme that has gained urgency globally with the rapid proliferation of generative AI tools capable of producing realistic deepfake imagery. Notably, India has been among countries where non-consensual intimate imagery cases have risen sharply in recent years, and youth advocates from the country have increasingly engaged multilateral human rights forums to shape international norm-setting.

'Innovation must move forward, but women's safety, dignity and freedom must move forward with it,' Sharma concluded, in remarks that drew the attention of delegates present at the ongoing session.

Whether the UNHRC Advisory Committee incorporates her specific proposals — including the innovation fund and algorithmic audits — into its forthcoming recommendations will be closely watched by civil society organisations working on digital rights.