Protection of women’s rights during the COVID-19 pandemic

July 9, 2020

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As part of its national COVID-19 response offer in Guinea-Bissau, UNDP has been supporting several local initiatives in the health, justice, human rights, economy sector among others, aiming to limit the socio-economic impact of the virus among the most vulnerable groups.

In view of this, UNDP, in partnership with other sister UN agencies intervening in Guinea-Bissau, namely UNFPA, UNICEF and WFP is supporting the BIOKSAN Platform, an online platform created by the Fundação Ana Pereira and RENLUV, a national women association, that aims at protecting and defending women’s and children’s rights as well as protecting gender equality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most specifically, the platform aims at:

·       Raising awareness of girls and women through radio, tv, cellphone and social media about the existence of protection mechanisms for victims to fight the rising wave of gender-based violence during COVID-19 pandemic;

·       Disseminate information related to sexual and reproductive health, laws against domestic violence as well as other relevant laws to promote women’s rights and free trainings as a way of addressing the gaps caused by the schools closing up due to the lockdown;

·       Provide medical (including nutritional), psychosocial and judiciary assistance to gender-based violence victims;

·       Encourage communities to report gender-based violence and human rights violations;

Since the launch of the platform in early June, around 25,000 people (of which 10,000 women) were sensitized and 12 reports of gender-based violence were received and addressed in the 9 regions of the country