Brief summary of presentation of information made

The moderator Mr. Martin Chungong welcomed everyone present and appreciated for the opportunity to dialogue on overcoming obstacles towards Gender equality. The call is to stop gender-based violence among women and young girls, which has risen due to lock downs. Women and girls have been abused and this has led to a high number of pregnancies among young girls.

Speaker 1, Mrs Asa Regner, (Assistant Secretary- General and Deputy Executive Director for Normative support, UN system Coordination and Programme Results)

• Called for a stop against threats that brings violence against women in families, work and society.
• Called for accountability among perpetrators and to report the victims.
• Called for institutions and law enforcements to respond to the challenge and ensure that women are able to participate without intimidations or threats.

Speaker 2, Ms Nino Lomjaria (Public Defender of Georgia)

• Called for quick measure to end violence against women.
• Called for strict monitoring and investigations against the perpetrators.
• She emphasised the call for international civil society to combat gender-based violence against women and young girls.

Speaker 3, Mrs Sandra Pepera from National Democratic institute for international affairs in Washington.

• In her presentation, she mentioned of the attack of women on social media.
• Online, gender-based abuse, cyberbullying and sexual harassment is increasingly common against women active in public life.
• Called for an end to online violence against women.

Violence and harassment against women in public life is a human rights violation. Prevention and response efforts urgently need to be intensified, in particular to reform legislation, strengthen access to justice and monitoring, and enhance coordination among stakeholders. Necessary steps include criminalizing violence against women in politics, improving the protection of victims, building the capacity of State institutions and law enforcement bodies to apply laws and respond to incidents, strengthening judicial and complaints mechanisms, collecting and monitoring data on incidence and prevalence, and setting standards on what constitutes online violence against women in public life so that the media and companies running social media platforms can be held accountable for such content. 

What was of particular significance to share with The Salvation Army globally?

• The Salvation Army has an opportunity to
• Be among the society that protect the rights of women.
• Be able to stand against gender-based violence, and help to drive the community for change
• Protect a girl child especially during lock down against all forms of abuse
• Ensure that gender equality is at the centre of all policies.
• Create an enabling environment that will protect a girl child.
• Create economic empowerment skills for women, creating programmes that will enhance every woman in the society
• Have focus on developing women/girls for decision making starting from the village meetings to high authorities.
• Allocate resources for training, prevention and essential services to eliminate violence against women in Church.
• Stand against gender-based violence which has risen due to Covid- 19 

Web links for more information

UN website- UN-Women, United Nations trust fund in support of actions to eliminate violence against women, “COVID-19 and the impact on civil society. Julie Ballington, “Turning the tide on violence against women in politics: how are we measuring up?”, Politics and Gender, vol. 14, No. 4 (December 2018)

Tags: SDG5: Gender Equality