{"id":338,"date":"2020-07-06T08:46:06","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T08:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/?p=338"},"modified":"2020-07-06T08:51:33","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T08:51:33","slug":"un-supporting-trapped-domestic-violence-victims-during-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/2020\/07\/06\/un-supporting-trapped-domestic-violence-victims-during-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"UN supporting \u2018trapped\u2019 domestic violence victims during COVID-19 pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cFor 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.\u201d \u2013 UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

12 June 2020 \u2013 T.C.*, a Palestinian woman in Al-Bureij camp, one of the poorest and most crowded camps in the Gaza Strip, had long been verbally and physically abused by her husband. \u00a0The situation took a turn for the worse under the COVID-19 pandemic, with the abuse becoming a daily occurrence.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I feel that this is a nightmare<\/a> that I will eventually wake up from, but the nightmare is never-ending and I do not know how much longer I can handle this,\u201d she told the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Oleksandra* says she felt the quiet war her ex-husband was waging against her had escalated under quarantine.\u00a0 Both living in the same apartment with their two children in Kyiv, Ukraine, she felt she had no escape<\/a> from his abuse. \u00a0She was afraid to seek help, knowing he might eavesdrop on her phone calls.<\/p>\n

T.C. and Oleksandra are among the hundreds of millions of victims of violence against women and girls, which has intensified since the outbreak of COVID-19. The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) says that domestic violence was already one of the greatest human rights violations. \u00a0Some 243 million women and girls<\/a> (aged 15-49) have been subjected to sexual or physical violence by an intimate partner in the last 12 months, Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka wrote on 6 April.<\/p>\n

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Woman with her granddaughter. Photo: UNFPA\/Georgina Goodwin<\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cAs the COVID-19 pandemic continues, this number is likely to grow,\u201d she says. (Also see UN Women\u2019s brief<\/a> on this issue.)<\/p>\n

Interpersonal violence rises in times of crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Increases in interpersonal violence during times of crisis are well documented. But wide underreporting has made response and data gathering a challenge, with less than 40 per cent of women who experience violence seeking any help or reporting the crime. \u00a0Of those women who do seek help, less than 10 per cent go to the police. However, early data shows that helplines in Singapore and Cyprus have registered a more than 30 per cent increase in calls. \u00a0In Australia, 40 per cent of frontline workers in New South Wales reported more requests for help with violence. \u00a0In France, domestic violence cases increased by 30 per cent since the lockdown on March 17. \u00a0In Argentina, emergency calls for domestic violence have increased by 25 per cent since the lockdown on March 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, every country in the region is already all too familiar with the scourge of interpersonal violence<\/a>\u201d, says the World Health Organization (WHO)\u00a0 Regional Office for Europe.<\/p>\n

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Amid a surge in calls for help, counsellors and police are pivoting to new modes of communication. Photo courtesy of Ternovyy Viktor<\/span><\/div>\n

In the United Kingdom, calls, emails and website visits to Respect, the national domestic violence charity, have increased 97 per cent, 185 per cent and 581 per cent respectively. \u00a0In the first 3 weeks of COVID-19 lockdowns, 14 women and 2 children were murdered in the country. Confinement under stay-at-home orders is \u201ca perfect storm\u201d for violent behaviour behind closed doors, says Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka, as it exacerbates tensions about security, health, and money.<\/p>\n

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In his message<\/a>, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres said that for many women and girls, the COVID-19 threat looms largest where they should be safest \u2013 their own homes. \u00a0\u201cWe know lockdowns and quarantines are essential to suppressing COVID-19,\u201d he said.\u00a0 However \u201cthey can trap women with abusive partners.\u201d He urged all Governments to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans. \u00a0Over 140 Governments have supported this call.<\/p>\n

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Mobile psychosocial team members say they have seen many more calls for help. Photo courtesy of Maryna Hlushchenko<\/span><\/div>\n

A need for silent and safe services<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to exacerbating fear, anxiety, financial stress and alcohol consumption, COVID-19 has challenged the ability of health and social services to connect with and support victims of violence. \u00a0In response, countries are putting in place solutions to offer safety. In Ukraine, Tetyana Franchuk, a psychologist with a UNFPA-supported mobile psychosocial team in Vyshneve, near Kiyv, has been providing services via Skype, Viber, Zoom and phone since the quarantine started. \u00a0These new platforms<\/a> have become popular.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow some clients even tell us that this way of work is more suitable for them than visiting us, and they want to continue in such way even after quarantine ends,\u201d she says. In Norway, too, teachers and other child welfare service workers have gone mobile, prompting more direct follow-up measures with known vulnerable children.<\/p>\n

In France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Spain, pharmacies and supermarkets have become safe \u201cgo-to\u201d spaces where the utterance of a code word<\/a> (\u201cMASK 19\u201d) signals an urgent request for protection from domestic abusers. \u00a0These locations are often the only retailers open, and shopping for essential groceries is the only accepted reason for people to leave their homes. With shelters at peak capacity in many of these countries, hotels have been re-tasked to meet the shortfall in emergency accommodation.<\/p>\n

*Names changed to for privacy and protection. <\/em>Note: For UN personnel, please visit<\/a>\u00a0“Domestic Abuse” page here.<\/p>\n

Source:https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/coronavirus\/un-supporting-%E2%80%98trapped%E2%80%99-domestic-violence-victims-during-covid-19-pandemic<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cFor 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.\u201d \u2013 UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres 12 June 2020 \u2013…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voilence-against-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}