Moving Beyond the Numbers: What the COVID-19 pandemic means for the safety of women and girls
Since the beginning of the lockdowns and quarantine restrictions enacted by Governments to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is witnessing a horrifying surge - a surge of what was already an epidemic - in gender-based violence (GBV), particularly intimate partner violence. A plethora of reports from across the globe have indicated an increase in reported cases, as well as deaths. Yet at the same time, some of the figures actually show the opposite – that fewer GBV survivors are contacting service providers than before the pandemic.
