‘We recognise that we are dealing with two pandemics – violence against women and girls declared by the World Health Organisation in 2013 and Coronavirus COVID-19’.
This is from Imkaan’s position paper in May 2020.
The paper finds:
- For Black and minoritised women and girls the risk of violence is also racialised. The lack of violence prevention measures impacted by the breakdown of safety nets and other social protections also increases risks under the two pandemics.
- Restrictive measures such as lockdown increase all forms of VAWG such as sexual violence, sexual harassment, racial discrimination (racialised VAWG) and other forms of violence impacting Black and minoritised women and girls disproportionately due to existing inequalities
- The lack of disaggregated data to fully identify the scope and scale of the problem invisibilises the racial, gendered and intersectional impact of the crisis.
