News

On March 11, 2020, due to a new coronavirus (COVID-19) that appeared in China and later spread around the world, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic^[1]. The announcement of the pandemic was not only a new challenge for the healthcare system, but also made more obvious all the political, societal and structural problems that  demand state actions.

As a result of the pandemic, a state of emergency was declared in a number of countries as well as in Armenia^[2]. It should be noted that in the face of the state of emergency, violence against women remains a global public health problem worldwide^[3]. In the state of emergency, the number of phone calls received by member organizations of “Coalition to Stop Violence against Women” NGO (Coalition) on the hotline reached 803 calls in March, 172 of which were about domestic violence, 750 calls in April, 250 of which were about domestic violence, and 915 calls were registered in May, 256 of which were related to domestic violence.

Comparing and analyzing this data, we can clearly see that the number of phone calls to domestic violence hotlines has increased․ If in March there was a 30% increase compared to February, in April it was 40%, and in May 50%․

The full report prepared by the “Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women” on gender-based violence against women during the period of restrictions imposed by coronavirus can be found here.