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Citation
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Lundin R, Armocida B, Sdao P, Pisanu S, Mariani I, Veltri A, Lazzerini M. J. Glob. Health 2020; 10(2): e359. |
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Abstract
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Gender-based violence (GBV), with one out of three women worldwide experiencing violence in their lifetime, has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a "global public health problem of epidemic proportions" [1]. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO and other international authorities have warned about the increased risk of GBV related to more time spent indoors, isolation from social and protective networks, and greater social and economic stress related to both the epidemic and response measures [2-4].
In fact, since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, reports from many countries including France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Argentina, Singapore, Canada, and the United States indicate that violence against women has increased [3-6]. In Italy, the most recent national data indicate that 31.5% of women between 16 and 70 years of age have experienced physical or sexual abuse at any point in their lives, with violence attributed to a current or former partner in 13.6% of cases [7]. After dentification of the first COVID-19 case in Italy on 21 February 2020, social distancing measures were progressively enacted, culminating in a nation-wide lockdown which lasted about two months, from 11 March 2020 to 3 May 2020 [8]. As signatory of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence - known as the Istanbul Convention - Italy recognises GBV as a violation of human rights [9]. It is the obligation of the national government to fully address violence against women in all its forms and to take measures to prevent it, protect its victims and prosecute perpetrators. The state should also collect relevant disaggregated statistical data at regular intervals on cases of all forms of violence against women, and support research in the field in order to study its root causes and effects, incidence and conviction rates, as well as the efficacy of measures taken to implement this Convention...
Language: en |