Displaced women, girls facing greater violence risk during coronavirus crisis: UNHCR
Displaced women and girls are facing a heightened risk of gender-based violence during the coronavirus crisis, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs, warned today.
Around the world, Covid-19 is taking lives and changing communities, but the virus is also inducing massive protection risks for women and girls forced to flee their homes, Triggs said.
"We need to pay urgent attention to the protection of refugee, displaced and stateless women and girls at the time of this pandemic. They are among those most at-risk. Doors should not be left open for abusers and no help spared for women surviving abuse and violence," she said in a statement.
Confinement policies, lockdowns and quarantines adopted across the world as a response to the pandemic have led to restricted movement, reduced community interaction, the closure of services and worsening socio-economic conditions. These factors are significantly exacerbating the risks of intimate partner violence.
"Some may end up confined to their shelters and homes, trapped with their abusers without the opportunity to distance themselves or to seek in-person support," she said.
"Others, including those without documentation or those who have lost precarious livelihoods, as a result of the economic devastation that COVID-19 has inflicted, may be forced into survival sex or child marriages by their families. Within the household, many women are also taking on increased burdens as caregivers," the UNHCR official continued.
"To preserve lives and secure rights, governments, together with humanitarian actors, must ensure that rising risks of violence for displaced and stateless women are taken into account in the design of national COVID-19 prevention, response and recovery plans," said Triggs.
"All women and girls have the right to a life free from all forms of violence. We must stand with displaced and stateless women and girls as we reiterate the Secretary General's message and urge all governments to put all women and girls' safety first as they respond to the pandemic," she added.
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