At the beginning of April, United Nations secretary-general António Guterres issued a video statement calling for “peace in homes around the world”.

“We have seen a horrifying global surge in domestic violence,” Guterres 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.”

His call came three months into the global coronavirus pandemic amidst increasing concern about how it has exacerbated existing inequalities, including domestic violence and other forms of violence against women and girls.

Has coronavirus increased domestic violence?

There is no direct link between coronavirus and domestic violence, said Dr Emma Williamson, Head of the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at Bristol University. Rather, “with restricted movement and lockdown, normal coping strategies for both survivors and perpetrators — and their family and friends who might support them — are limited.”

The most successful emergency responses have also seen domestic and gender-based violence considered integral to public health in general

And while many analyses point to lockdown-related stressors — job loss; economic uncertainty; health anxiety — as triggers for increasing violence, experts are quick to emphasise that these should not be considered as justifications, and that women experiencing the same stressors have not responded with violence in the same numbers.

Emergency responses

Governments around the world have had to respond quickly to this increase in domestic violence. ‘Code word’ schemes introduced in a number of countries have seen women able to discreetly communicate their need for help to staff in grocery stores and pharmacies, while existing support agencies have rushed to move services online. In Ukraine, where calls to a national domestic violence hotline increased by more than 25% in the first fortnight of lockdown, NGO La Strada introduced Facebook Messenger and Skype services as well as online support groups.

Alongside reaching victims, effective emergency responses must target male perpetrators, says Åsa Regnér, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women and former Swedish Gender Equality Minister. She highlights Norway, where men with a history of violence have been invited to call a specialist helpline to talk with a therapist, “so that there is an alternative to violence”.

The most successful emergency responses have also seen domestic and gender-based violence considered integral to public health in general. “The continuity of services to support survivors of gender-based violence needs to be considered as essential as ventilators and masks,” says Caren Grown, global director for Gender at the World Bank, who also emphasises the need for the array of public health messages administered during a crisis to include those about conflict management, such as “healthy families are families free from violence”.

An opportunity and a threat

That governments and services have been forced into innovation could present a chance to make sustainable advances in tackling domestic violence. “Gender-based violence has been a pandemic since before the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Grown. “This can only exacerbate pre-existing conditions and the evidence of what we are seeing needs to inform how we ‘build back better’”.

Some governments have been accused of prioritising the economic over the social in their pandemic responses, but Grown suggests this is a false binary, pointing out that World Bank and other estimates suggest that that violence against women pre-coronavirus can cost national economies up to 3% of GDP. Economic policies and regulations that don’t take into account women’s roles in economic and social life can also exacerbate problems for domestic violence victims; compensation for loss of earnings that is paid to a single head of household, for example, can increase dependency and control.

But while the pandemic presents an opportunity to implement sustainable change in countries where domestic violence infrastructure has traditionally been poor, says Åsa Regnér, “we have also seen deconstruction of that infrastructure - shelters used for other purposes or money shifted towards other emergency responses.”

It is vital for governments to take the opportunities presented by the pandemic to do things differently in future

Increased awareness has pushed the issue up political agendas, she continues, “but the worry is that there are so many needs right now which might be considered to be more of an emergency."

What does good policy look like?

To pit different needs against each other like this would be a mistake for long-term policymaking. The costs of gender-based violence, says Caren Grown, go far beyond the immediate harms to its victims and manifest in absenteeism and loss of productivity in the workplace, loss of income for families, health costs to men, women and children, and “intergenerational costs,” including when children who witness violence grow up to perpetuate the cycle themselves.

Good policy, therefore, means “strong, multi-sectoral responses that link health systems to legal and judicial services, police, and livelihood and psycho-social support services,” says Grown. “It’s not a single issue.”

The Indian state of Kerala, widely praised for its coronavirus response, is one such example, say experts: strong, well-funded infrastructure linking different sectors has allowed most emergency domestic violence services to remain open during the pandemic while well-resourced women’s organisations have been able to quickly mobilise.

According to Regnér, while legislation has generally improved in the last 25 years, the money required to put in place the accompanying infrastructure has been slower to follow. It is vital, she says, for governments to take the opportunities presented by the pandemic to do things differently in future.

“We foresee a further increase in women seeking help once countries start to open up again,” says Regnér. “Governments have to think that through now and respond with robust infrastructure.” — Eve Livingston

(Picture credit: Unsplash)