Nobel laureate says pandemic increases violence, trafficking

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad said the coronavirus pandemic has increased trafficking of women and gender-based violence, putting women's health and safety at risk.

The 27-year-old activist, who was forced into sexual slavery by Islamic State fighters in Iraq, said curfews, lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed by governments to slow the spread of the virus “have had unintended consequences for women around the world.”

“Rather than reducing human trafficking and gender-based violence, the pandemic has increased the risk of exploitation and brutality against the most vulnerable,” she said. “Many countries have seen an increase in reports of domestic violence since the start of the pandemic. »

Murad said domestic tensions have heightened in confined living spaces and that stay-at-home orders are “increasing human trafficking even more clandestinely, out of sight of law enforcement.”

“The few resources allocated to prevention, rescue and rehabilitation are being stretched,” she said. “As a result, women’s health and safety are at stake. It is now difficult for many women to access psychological support (and) health care.”

A member of Iraq's Yazidi minority, Murad was among thousands of women and girls captured and forced into sexual slavery by Islamic State militants in 2014. Her mother and six brothers were killed by fighters of ISIS in Iraq. She became an activist for women and girls after escaping and finding refuge in Germany and shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018.

Murad spoke virtually at a UN meeting on Monday titled “Confined and Locked Up: Opposing Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” This meeting was organized by Nadia's Initiative, the non-profit organization she founded in 2018 that advocates for victims of sexual violence and aims to rebuild communities in crisis, in collaboration with UN Women and the United Nations Office United Nations Against Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Murad, UNODC Goodwill Ambassador for Survivors of Trafficking, highlighted that Monday was International Women Human Rights Defenders Day and expressed hope that the day would “amplify the urgent need to combat gender-based violence and human trafficking.”

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of UN Women, said 72% of trafficking victims detected globally are women and girls – and 77% of identified female survivors were trafficked for of sexual exploitation.

The COVID-19 pandemic will push 47 million more women and girls into extreme poverty, she said, “but traffickers’ business is booming.”

“During pandemic lockdowns, two-thirds of anti-trafficking workers reported an increase in online recruitment by traffickers for online sexual exploitation,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

She said the pandemic has reduced access to health care and undermined the ability of governments and the United Nations “to report violations, provide protection and combat impunity.”

Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka called for urgent, coordinated global action and cited a promising response: 146 countries responded to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' call for measures to prevent violence women and girls and promote “peace at home” as part of their plans to combat COVID-19.

Actress and activist Ashley Judd, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund, has criticised the “toxic masculinity” taught to men and boys who sexually assault and exploit women.

“I look forward to the day when we no longer have sexual and gender-based violence, especially under COVID, so that we can resist,” she said in a virtual speech.

German Foreign Minister Michelle Müntefering said the coronavirus made the fight for gender equality even more important.

“We will not allow sexual and gender-based violence and human trafficking to go unnoticed,” she said, pledging to support Murad and others “who fight every day for just and equitable societies.”