Gender

Economics and human rights have never been close friends. Human rights advocates have rarely engaged with financial systems. Economists, in turn, have rarely considered human right law precepts. However, COVID-19 intensified the need for mutual co-operation to safeguard the most disadvantaged, particularly women, who have suffered disproportionate negative socio-economic impact from the pandemic.

Containing the spread of COVID-19 means curtailing some human rights. However, questions must be raised when governments allow people to attend large sporting events and sit indoors in restaurants and bars but ban partners from prenatal consultations and childbirth.

In Italy, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a disproportionately negative socio-economic impact on trans persons. With an increase in unemployment rates and discriminatory dynamics, and a pause in pivotal debates at institutional and social level, the already limited space given to trans workers has become narrower and narrower.

Human rights activists have to resist governments using COVID-19 to discriminate further against the already persecuted LGBTIQ+ community in a continent where traditionalists view sexual minorities as un-African and hate speech from extremist religious and political leaders fuels homophobic violence.

Even in the 21st century, women are subject to extreme human rights abuses such as abduction for the purpose of marriage, which is still common in post-Soviet Eurasia. Better social education, political support and well-functioning legal systems are necessary to end this barbaric practice.

We need to develop a human rights-based approach to the design and conduct of science. As part of this, it is vital to include a sex/gender perspective in clinical trials and scientific studies, including in the development of new vaccines.

Period poverty remains a major challenge in Lebanon, especially for refugees. With the country on the verge of economic collapse, the government is not prioritising gender equality but local and international organisations are working to help vulnerable women and girls.

There is a direct correlation between the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of violence against women in Mauritius. Domestic violence is a pandemic within the pandemic which often gets blurred out in discourse and policy. There is an urgent call for action to address this chaotic situation.

Restrictions introduced to protect public health at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic had devastating consequences for the access to sexual and reproductive health services around the world. Conservative governments have cynically used COVID-19 to restrict reproductive rights. Are there any positive developments that can give us hope?

Women are hit particularly hard by the pandemic for a myriad of reasons. Reflecting on a webinar featuring three prominent Right Livelihood Laureates, this contribution highlights the need for embracing a feminist perspective aimed at societal transformation as a prerequisite for crisis preparedness.