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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Women's rights |
|---|---|
| located: | Spain, China |
| editor: | Bob Koigi |
While domestic and sexual violence is a daily reality for a majority of women and girls around the world, it is now spiking to epidemic proportions as worldwide confinements occasioned by mandatory stay-at-home directives continue being enforced.
In the last 12 months before the pandemic struck, UN data indicated that an estimated 243 million women and girls between 15 and 49 years experienced some form of physical or sexual abuse, a majority of which from people close to them. Now new data shows that violence against women has risen by up to 20 per cent during the global lockdowns.
From Spain where a 35-year-old mother of two was murdered by her partner in March, women's rights organizations in China reporting a threefold increase in reported cases of women abused and Africa where women continue to suffer in silence, the growing number of domestic violence cases in the wake of COVID-19 have become in the words of the United Nations a shadow pandemic.
Frustrations, social isolation and financial difficulties are exacerbating this emergency with homes that have traditionally proven safe havens for women and girls turning into their worst nightmares. UN Secretary General António Guterres aptly captured the situation in his remarks: “For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest. In their own homes... We know lockdowns and quarantines are essential to suppressing COVID-19. But they can trap women with abusive partners.”
Even as some countries, especially those in Latin America record a growing number of calls to hotlines reporting abuse, other countries are expressing fear and concern that there has been loud silence in reporting of cases especially in help centres in what could point to the reality that those abused are running out of options or resigning to their situation.
As governments and institutions focus their attention on flattening the curve and taming the pandemic, the world should not lose sight of an even serious underlying emergency that if not checked will have long term and devastating impacts on households, societies and the world at large.
Image by Tumisu
