More domestic violence has been reported worldwide during the corona pandemic, Oxfam concludes based on a new report to be published on Thursday.
The aid organization believes that governments are doing too little to combat violence and is especially concerned about the safety of women, girls and LGBTQI+ people.
Oxfam investigated the number of reports of violence, including domestic violence, against women, girls and LGBTQI+ people in ten countries. The situation deteriorated most rapidly in Malaysia, where almost twice as many reports (up 111%) of violence were made during the first months of the corona pandemic. Significantly more violence was also reported in Colombia (79 percent more reports), Italy (73 percent more reports) and South Africa (69 percent more reports). In the other countries, Argentina, Tunisia, China, Somalia, the United Kingdom and Cyprus, the number of reports rose by between 25 and 50 percent.
“We see that the pandemic is increasing existing inequalities and that women, girls and LGBTQI+ people are always the hardest hit. This violence leads to emotional distress and increasing poverty,” said Katinka Moonen, who takes care of the project on behalf of the Dutch Oxfam Novib. the problem. “The pandemic makes it clear that governments around the world need to protect these people from violence but are failing to do so.”
According to Oxfam, the report shows that, despite earlier promises, several countries did not take serious measures to tackle this violence. Of the $26.7 trillion that governments and donors have committed to combat the pandemic in 2020, according to Oxfam, “only 0.0002% has been spent on fighting domestic violence”.
Oxfam calls on governments to do more to tackle the problem. This can be done, for example, by investing money in women’s rights organizations and feminist movements.
Average Rating