Do not let women’s rights slip during the COVID19 crisis.

EU member states must make domestic violence and access to sexual and reproductive healthcare an integral part of their COVID19 responses. Social isolation has made many women prisoners of their own homes. An affront to fundamental human rights that we cannot accept. Especially in an emergency, we must protect the most vulnerable. The EU must show there is a European way of dealing with the coronavirus. One that reflects European values like equality and respect for human rights.

In a truly equal society, everybody endures a crisis equally. Under the duress of emergency measures however, we can see in which ways ours is not. The inequalities we have, are surfacing. Confinement touches people in small apartments differently, than people in houses with a garden. The gig economy is giving more economic anxiety to some than to others. Reports of discrimination are on the up, and the many obstacles that women face in daily life have grown larger. The fact that women are more likely to be abused in their own homes is taking a dark turn in recent weeks, with even the UN issuing an urgent waning. With the implementation of emergency measures to fight the pandemic, women’s needs for sexual and reproductive rights have been overlooked.

We can address these wrongs right now, if we recognize them. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has acknowledged that society must do better towards women when she took office. She singled out crimes against women as a priority for her agenda. It will take some effort to give this issue the attention it needs right now. Luckily, there are examples of member states doing the right thing. Italy is launching an app that lets women report abuse safely. France and Spain are rolling out a reporting network with pharmacies acting as safe reporting spaces. It is also increasing state support for societal organisations dealing with domestic abuse and shelters.

In France, pharmacies use code words to safely report domestic violence. In the Netherlands, the emergency phone number for domestic violence reports is posted by the Dutch Edition of Vice Magazine

These are all measures that member states can adopt immediately. Do not ponder on them for too long. The clock is ticking for women at risk of abuse or in need of sexual and reproductive healthcare. In crisis, when some are hit disproportionally hard, we must not allow it. When lines of inequality show themselves, we must not let these fissures deepen. We should mend them, because it will make our society as a whole a better one. Not just now, but in the long run. Is that not something to strive for? Let us not waste any opportunity to stand for our European values and work towards an equal and just society.

Samira Rafaela, Karen Melchior, Hilde Vautmans, María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, Radka Maxová, Sylvie Brunet, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, Irène Tolleret, Susana Solís Pérez