COVID-19 Highlights the Failure of Neoliberal Capitalism: We Need Feminist Global Solidarity
March 25, 2020 - APWLD stands in solidarity with the people in the region and across the globe, who are suffering from COVID-19 pandemic and other interconnected crises. Women of all diversities bear the brunt of this crisis as they face multiple and intersecting discrimination, exclusion and violence. The effect of this public health crisis leading to — and was brought by —- the interconnected economic, social and political crisis is becoming clearly evident, and the most marginalised communities are hit the hardest. We have observed the significant lack of access to accurate information, governments’ failure to deliver on their state obligation, including in ensuring transparency or meeting peoples’ basic needs, increased digital surveillance, curfews and lockdown with sweeping measures by military and police forces. With movement restrictions as well as the closure of schools in the absence of adequate support for care services, we have also witnessed how, at home, patriarchal, gendered norms of unpaid care work are reinforced, as well as rapid surges in domestic violence across the world.
GENEVA (27 March 2020) – Society has a duty to exercise solidarity and better protect older persons who are bearing the lion's share of the COVID-19 pandemic, a UN human rights expert said.
"Reports of abandoned older persons in care homes or of dead corpses found in nursing homes are alarming. This is unacceptable," said Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, UN Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons. "We all have the obligation to exercise solidarity and protect older persons from such harm."
Older persons do not only face a disproportionate risk of death but they are further threatened by COVID-19 due to their care support needs or by living in high-risk environments such as institutions, the expert said.
Kornfeld-Matte expressed particular concerns about older persons with underlying health conditions and those who are already socially excluded, living in poverty, having limited access to health services, or living in confined spaces such as prisons and residential care homes.
Foreign Policy Analytics
Direct Link to 2020 2-PAGE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Link to FULL 56-Page Report: https://womenasleversofchange.com/static/pdf/Women-As-Levers-Of-Change.pdf
This blog post is co-authored by Dr. Ilaria Bottigliero, Director, Policy, Research and Learning, International Development Law Organization (IDLO) and Françoise Trine, Senior Food Security Officer, Secretariat of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS).
March 5, 2020 - In societies where there is a high degree of gender inequality, there is also a significantly higher proportion of undernourishment among women and girls.
In order to effectively tackle food insecurity, it is necessary to address gender inequality more broadly, particularly the discriminatory policies, laws and social norms that prevent women and girls from participating in society on an equal basis.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and a growing number of other international policy and legal instruments emphasize the mutually reinforcing relationship between gender equality and the realization of women’s rights to food, land, social security and work.
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing – Website: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Housing/Pages/HousingIndex.aspx
2020 Special Rapporteur Report to the UN Human Rights Council IS ATTACHED: ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR THE RIGHT TO HOUSING
Full Article: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25727&LangID=E
