Combating the pandemic within the COVID-19 pandemic: violence against women and girls

In the past months, the pandemic has affected societies and individuals around the world in almost every aspect of life. The pandemic affects women and men differently and it has become clear that it increases the risk of violence against women and girls. While gender-based violence, including domestic violence, is not a new topic, the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated existing patterns. Emerging data and media reports show that since the outbreak of the pandemic, violence against women and girls, and in particular domestic violence, has increased. International organizations and non-governmental organizations have urged governments to take action and make the prevention and response to violence against women an integral part of their national COVID-19 response.

The Secretariat’s Programme for Gender Issues and Transnational Threats Department/Strategic Police Matters Unit with support of the Albanian OSCE Chair organized this webinar as an informal platform to exchange knowledge and views between experts, OSCE delegations and OSCE staff. 

The overall objectives were:

• To share emerging good practices and effective measures introduced in OSCE participating States to respond to increased levels of violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular from a law enforcement and access to justice perspective;
• To identify potential actions which OSCE participating States could take in the post-COVID phase to prevent violence against women and girls and improve the support to survivors of violence against women and girls.

Listen to the webinar recording here: https://youtu.be/EwvVVAe9ZB4