The rise in violence during the pandemic is seriously impacting long-term mental health—particularly of women.
That is why it critical that we make this 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence the most visible it has ever been. The rolling action begins on 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls, and ends on 10 December, International Human Rights Day.
UNI Equal Opportunities is calling on you to highlight solutions to the Covid-related spike in violence against women including the urgent need for countries to adopt ILO Convention 190 on the elimination of violence in the world of work.
According to UN Women, domestic violence has risen by more than 20 per cent globally, and ITU reports that online violence against women and girls—which includes threats, sexual harassment, stalking, Zoom Bombing and sex trolling—has increased by 50 per cent in some countries.
For frontline workers who are disproportionately women, violence from third parties (customers, clients and patients) has also spiked during the pandemic.
From PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) to depression and anxiety, violence has a significant impact on our long-term mental health. It affects our well-being, makes us more likely to abuse substances and become suicidal. It reduces our potential and limits our productivity and contribution to our communities. In other words, violence shatters mental health, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made this problem worse.
To support us, share our social media posts for each day, as well as our infographic, and ask your unions to do the same and to tag us. Our hashtags are:
#ratifyILO190
#16days
Now more than ever, we must stand with women workers, as UNI and as our unions. Join us in the fight against violence because together we are stronger, together we can help end violence in the world of work.
