Welcome to the 22nd WCP Congress Program Scheduling

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PANDEMIC AND WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS: THE COVID 19 SAGA

One hundred years ago, the 1918 “great influenza”, known as the Spanish Flu, swept the globe, infecting one third of the world’s population. The aftermath of this disaster, led to unexpected social changes, opening up new opportunities for women . Women began to move into employment roles that were previously held exclusively by men; as women filled what had been typically male workplace roles, they also began to demand equal pay for their work, actively advocating for various women’s rights issues, and becoming more involved in community decision-making.

The primary purpose of this presentation is to show how much the COVID-19 pandemic has erased decades of progress towards gender equality : from high job losses to exploding burdens of unpaid care, from disrupted schooling to an escalating crisis of domestic violence and exploitation, from erosion of women’s autonomy to undermining of sexual and reproductive health rights.

As Women and Girls are the hardest hit by this pandemic , and as we seem to be reaching the end of it, we propose that the time has come to make sure that there is an equal women’s representation in all Covid 19 response planning and decision-making as well as equality in addressing the care economy – paid and unpaid: we also assert that there is a need to create programs to achieve greater opportunities and social protection for Women and Girls as they will be the backbone of recovery in communities.

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The paper makes the point that to effect change, we need to understand the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic experienced by women patients and that experienced by many mental health care providers.

There will be two main foci to this presentation.

Firstly, I will speak on the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic on intimate partner violence and sexual violence from a Russian perspective – bearing in mind recent reviews on the increase of violence as a socially disrupting response to the pandemic. The selected reports from regional psychiatric services and police department reports of domestic violence cases related to the COVID-19 epidemic will be presented.

Secondly, I will draw upon our work providing a new educational program, «Women victims of domestic violence: Detection, clinic, help» – mainly based on the WPA International Curriculum for Mental Healthcare Providers on Violence Against Women. The program is a follow-on to the one held during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, at which interest was expressed in sharing ideas and resources. We do not underestimate the difficulty of providing effective help to women whose mental health has been profoundly affected by the violence, damage that is often further compounded by years of mistreatment and revictimization in services.

The paper provides commentaries and reflections on the steps that must be taken to address the risks of violence faced by women during pandemic restrictions.