With the COVID-19 pandemic heightening the dangers of gender-based violence and human trafficking, action on these two fronts is needed now more than ever, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Monday.
Violence against women and girls at home affects millions globally. The problem is particularly pervasive as it occurs in a space women and girls should feel most secure.
A young mother has been talking about how she was shunned by her community in Uganda when she returned home after being abducted and forced to fight for rebels as a child soldier.
COVID-19 is overshadowing what has become a “pandemic of femicide” and related gender-based violence against women and girls, said independent UN human rights expert Dubravka Šimonović on Monday, calling for the universal establishment of national initiatives to monitor and prevent such killings.
The deteriorating health of Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain Al-Hathloul is “deeply alarming”, UN-appointed rights experts said on Wednesday, calling for her release along with “all other women human rights defenders in detention”.
One of the far-reaching effects of the global lockdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has been the return of migrant workers to their home countries. The UN is assisting the authorities in Myanmar in facilitating this homeward migration, with a focus on providing for the needs of women.
