As billions of people are still under COVID-19 lockdown, the shadow pandemic of violence against women has been growing within homes around the world.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, violence against women and girls, a gross human rights violation, impacted one in three women worldwide. Recent data from multiple countries already show a spike in reporting of domestic violence through helplines since COVID-19 lockdowns started. As countries now contend with the economic crisis, service shortfalls, and high levels of stress, many women find themselves trapped in isolation with abusive partners, without access to information and support services that they need.
To counter this alarming rise, UN Women offices around the world have partnered with tech giants like Google, Twitter and Facebook to provide important information about helpline services for domestic violence survivors.
Among the “Big Five” tech giants, Google and Facebook have partnered with UN Women to make information and resources available to survivors of violence.
Google has recently provided Ad Grants valued up to USD 1 million to UN Women through the “Ad Grants Crisis Relief Program” to promote content on COVID-19 and gender equality in 2020, including resources on ending violence against women to address the alarming spike in domestic violence globally. Google has linked to UN Women’s main section on the issue through its COVID-19 information hub in the USA and will later expand this to additional languages and countries.
Facebook is also making resources for survivors of domestic violence easily and quickly available through its platform.
“For the millions of women in these desperate circumstances, getting accurate information about local shelters and helplines can make all the difference,” says UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. “It can be difficult to find out where to get help, and keep that search private, especially when under tight control by an abusive partner. We really appreciate the massive boost to accessibility this collaboration brings, so it’s easy for women searching for help to find it safely.”
In Asia and the Pacific region, where 2 out of 3 women reported experiences of violence even before COVID-19 lockdowns started, a partnership with Twitter is providing helpline numbers for accelerated support. When a Twitter user searches for terms associated with violence against women (such as “abuse,” “sexual assault,” “domestic violence,” etc.), the top search result will be a notification in their local language: “If you are experiencing violence, help is available”, followed by a relevant hotline number and the Twitter handle of that service.
Twitter, with support from UN Women, is launching these notifications in Thailand, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Viet Nam as part of Twitter’s #ThereIsHelp campaign.
Original source: UN Women
Published on 24 June 2020
