Ref: 3/2022
Date: 02 February 2022
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) launched on February 2, 2022, a new report entitled ‘Navigating Through the Pandemic: Gender-Specific Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on Women in Gaza’. This report examines the impact of the pandemic on the daily lives of females in besieged Gaza, which showed to be greatly disproportionate, especially when it comes to gender-based violence.
The report provides recent information collected from a sample of 12 Palestinian females living in Gaza who experienced the impact of COVID-19 on their health, work, personal and social affairs. Other questions revolved around the challenges they faced as females during the pandemic, and how their challenge compared to the challenges faced by their male counterparts in Gaza. The females were also asked about their sources of support and their assessment of the Palestinian government in supporting their gender during the pandemic. They offered suggestions on how their gender should be supported during similar times of crisis.
The report shows that the pandemic had a direct impact on the economic livelihood of the Palestinian females in Gaza, who were more vulnerable to the psychosocial ramifications of the pandemic compared to their male counterparts. More importantly, the report shows that pandemic-induced financial hardships are often used as a pretext for gender-based domestic violence against the females, a problem that was exacerbated by the lack of safe spaces for these females and the lack of public or private support throughout the pandemic. Those females also lacked access to justice which added another layer of personal life challenges to their ordeal.
The report presents a selection of recommendations that include calls for gender-responsive mental health and psychosocial support for females, supporting female health and social care workers, providing accessible safe spaces for vulnerable females, increasing female participation in decision making and facilitating access to online services. PCHR also called upon local and international institutions to assist in forming a system of compensation to laid off workers, whether males or females, in order to limit the psychosocial impact of the layoffs on the households.
PCHR also renewed its call upon the United Nations to support the justice sector in Palestine in order to be able to fulfill its duties and alleviate the suffering of citizens, especially the females in light of the accumulation of cases after the pandemic that affect their lives and well-being if they were left unresolved.