Participation of the PABSEC International Secretariat in the IPU meeting on violence against women and girls, 14 April 2021
Ms. Milena Ljubinkovic, Secretary of the PABSEC Economic, Commercial, Technological and Environmental Affairs Committee took part in the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting on violence against women and girls held online on 14 April 2021.
The meeting was organized by the IPU and UN Women with the aim to offer support to parliaments and their members to build an evidence-based understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on the advancement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; exchange experience, good practices, lessons learned and advice; and to identify legislative, oversight, and budgetary parliamentary actions for gender-responsive recovery.
At the meeting, it was stated that emerging data show that violence against women and girls has intensified since the outbreak of COVID-19 and that sexual and gender-based violence is rising in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was pointed out that with the COVID-19, new modalities of work and functioning are needed to ensure that parliaments carry out their key role in gender equality achievement. Parliamentarians have an important role in ensuring gender-responsive COVID-19 recovery through gender-sensitive parliaments and gender-responsive legislation. Parliaments are to promote women’s participation and leadership in parliamentary decision-making on COVID-19; gender-responsive COVID-19 legislation; oversight of government action on the pandemic from a gender perspective; and are to implement gender-sensitive adaptation of parliamentary functioning and work.
It was concluded that parliaments and their members are in a unique position to exercise political will and contribute to gender-responsive action in order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on women and girls and to drive a gender-responsive recovery post-pandemic.