GBV gets worse in any crisis and COVID-19 is no exception. Governments worldwide have introduced social distancing and lockdown-type, stay-at-home measures to contain the disease, but those same restrictions have created conditions conducive to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of the most vulnerable members of society.

Those who are abused by family members, often have little or no access to the usual routes of escape. Additionally, fewer visitors to the household means that evidence of physical abuse is more likely to go unnoticed. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the world has witnessed a surge in domestic violence cases since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (Townsend, 2020).

• In the UK, the National Domestic Abuse helpline reported a 25% increase in calls and online requests since the lockdown began in March 2020 (Kelly & Morgan, 2020).
• In India, the number of domestic violence complaints received by the National Commission of Women (NCW) had doubled from the first to the final week of March 2020 (EPW Engage, 2020).
• A spike in calls to domestic abuse hotlines has also been noted in Latin American countries, such as Mexico and Brazil (Sigal, Ramos Miranda, Martinez, & Machicao, 2020).
• In China, police officers received three times as many domestic violence calls in February 2020 as in February 2019 (Wanqing, 2020).
• In the Greek Cypriot population, in turn, incidents of domestic violence increased by 58% from the middle of March till the 22^nd April 2020. With a 10-fold increase in calls to helplines since the lockdown, the situation in the Turkish Cypriot population appears even worse (UN Peacekeeping, 2020).

Overall, increased cases of domestic violence and demand for emergency shelter have been reported all over the world, including low-, middle-, and high-income countries (UN Women, 2020).

There are also concerns for a greater risk of child sexual abuse (CSA) and other forms of child abuse during the pandemic. According to UNICEF Jamaica (2020), between January to June 2020, the National Children’s registry received over 1000 reports of sexual abuse for investigation. Children are also vulnerable to other types of abuse, including physical and emotional abuse, during the pandemic. This is because many parents experience increased levels of stress, e.g. due to financial strain, which may precipitate aggressive responses towards children (Abramson, 2020; Romanou & Belton, 2020). As indicated above, however, these risks are not unique to specific countries and were reported to be affecting societies worldwide.

As emphasised by international organisations, such as UN Women, UNICEF, World Health Organisation, Refuge, and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, countries must include a gender perspective in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. António Guterres, the United Nations (UN) secretary-general, said:

“I urge all governments to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19”

(see Fang, 2020). Many governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have already taken steps in this direction. For example:

• The UK Government announced that household isolation instructions do not apply if a person needs to leave their home to escape domestic abuse. In June 2020, the Social Care Institute for Excellence in the UK published a quick guide aimed at professionals and organisations who are involved in supporting and safeguarding adults and children during the COVID-19 crisis.
• The French Government has encouraged victims to seek help at pharmacies, and the Italian government has launched a mobile app that will enable victims to ask for help without making a phone call (Talmazan, Sirna, Muñoz Ratto, & Ing, 2020).
• In an attempt to spread awareness of domestic violence as well as encourage men to take a stand against it and women to break the silence around it, an anti-domestic violence video was published by Indian celebrities, including Anushka Sharma, Vidya Balan, Virat Kohli, and other Bollywood personalities (Vijayalakshmi, 2020).

Considering the restrictions of movement, the pandemic is also placing an unprecedented strain on criminal justice systems around the world. In response to this, some Latin American countries, including Bolivia, Ecuador, and Argentina, have introduced virtual court hearings. However, it has been noted that countries utilising virtual court trials should work alongside civil society organisations to assess the gender impact of legal procedures and adopt guidelines to ensure that women are safe and adequately supported during the process (Equality Now, 2020).

To protect children from abuse during this global crisis, UK’s children charity, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) have recently recommended that governments and statutory agencies:

1. provide practical support to parents around income maximisation to reduce stress associated with financial insecurity;
2. address digital exclusion so that all children have access to school and support services;
3. provide long-term funding for children’s services, with a particular focus on early intervention and therapy (Romanou & Belton, 2020).

Recently, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with contributions from UN Women developed the COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker. The tracker can be used to monitor gender-sensitive policy measures enacted by governments worldwide to address the COVID-19 crisis.

Last updated October 2020