Women and Girls and the Response to the Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19)

A/RES/75/157View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 28 Advancement of women, published in 2020.

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 subjects

What’s in this document?

14 operative paragraphs

Calls upon Member States to fully respect and implement their obligations under international human rights law and existing commitments with respect to the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, including those contained in the outcome documents and reviews of relevant international conferences, in particular the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,¹² the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development,¹³ and stresses that there is no place for any form of discrimination, racism, stigmatization and xenophobia in the response to the pandemic;

¹²Resolution 70/1.

¹³Report of the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 5–13 September 1994 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.95.XIII.18), chap. I, resolution 1, annex.

Emphasizes the critical role that women play in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and urges Member States, the United Nations system and regional organizations, and other relevant actors to strengthen women’s leadership and to ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and, when appropriate, women’s organizations in decision-making processes and in all stages of response to COVID-19, as well as in recovery processes, and to continue to mainstream a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system, including those approved during the pandemic, including in budgetary responses;

Also emphasizes the need to develop economic recovery plans that drive change towards inclusive societies by, inter alia, targeting all women and girls, especially those who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence, underlining that economic response, including poverty eradication measures, social assistance and protection, and fiscal and stimulus packages, must be equally accessible to all, be gender-responsive and specifically address the care sector and the issues of informal and non-standard forms of employment, and recognize and take measures to reduce and redistribute women’s and girls’ disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, and consider focusing on actions regarding financial inclusion for women, equal pay for work of equal value and career opportunities, as well as women’s leadership and female entrepreneurship and ensure women’s participation in economic activity, as this is key to sustainable economic recovery;

Calls upon States to ensure meaningful engagement with civil society, including non-governmental organizations and women’s and community-based organizations, youth-led and girl-led organizations, and all other stakeholders such as volunteers and national human rights institutions where they exist, and women peacebuilders in situations of armed conflict and post-conflict in protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all women and girls during the response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic;

Calls upon Member States and other relevant stakeholders to identify and seize opportunities to promote gender equality and women’s economic empowerment as well as their participation in and access to the labour market, including through innovative ways of working that enable an equal sharing of care and family responsibilities between women and men;

Also calls upon Member States and other relevant stakeholders to take steps to bridge the digital divide, including the gender digital divide, as part of the efforts to ensure the empowerment of all women and girls, including their participation in recovery and enabling women to work remotely and girls to continue their education during the pandemic;

Urges Member States to prevent, respond to and eliminate violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, in particular domestic violence, and including in digital contexts, harmful practices such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations, and trafficking in persons by designating protection and health-care services as essential services for all women and girls, especially those who are most vulnerable to violence and stigma, inter alia, by increasing emergency helplines, shelters and awareness-raising campaigns and by mobilizing all relevant stakeholders, and to address gender stereotypes and negative social norms;

Calls upon States to take all measures necessary to ensure the right of women and girls to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, including sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights, in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences, and to develop sustainable health systems and social services, with a view to ensuring universal access to such systems and services without discrimination;

Emphasizes the importance of the right of everyone to education and the continuation of learning, including girls, acknowledging that during the pandemic adolescent girls are at particular risk of dropping out and not returning to school even after the pandemic is over, thereby increasing their vulnerability to poverty, child, early and forced marriage and early pregnancy, calls upon Member States to ensure that girls are protected and supported in returning to school once it is deemed safe to do so, and in this regard calls upon Member States and other relevant stakeholders to take the appropriate measures in order to ensure the availability of learning materials and remote learning platforms during the pandemic, and to bridge the digital divide in order to provide distance learning opportunities, inter alia, Internet, television and radio teaching alternatives, especially in developing countries;

Reaffirms the need to ensure the safe and unhindered access of humanitarian and medical personnel responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their means of transport, supplies and equipment, and to support, facilitate and enable transportation and logistical supply lines, in order to allow such personnel to efficiently and safely perform their task of assisting affected civilian populations, especially women and girls, and in this regard emphasizes the need for humanitarian assistance to be gender-responsive, also reaffirms the need to take the measures necessary to respect and protect such personnel, hospitals and other medical facilities, as well as their means of transportation, supplies and equipment, and recalls its resolution 46/182 of 19 December 1991 on the strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian emergency assistance of the United Nations and all subsequent General Assembly resolutions on the subject, including its resolution 74/118 of 16 December 2019;

Also reaffirms the importance of strengthening the protection of women and girls in armed conflict and the full, equal and meaningful participation of women at all decision-making levels and at all stages of peace processes and mediation efforts, including in the prevention and resolution of armed conflicts, recognizes their leadership therein and the need for their enhanced representation in peacekeeping, also recognizes that COVID-19 might slow down progress in this regard, and calls upon Member States to reinforce efforts in this area;

Calls upon Member States to take steps towards collecting and ensuring the availability of high-quality, accessible, timely and reliable data disaggregated by sex, age, disability and other characteristics relevant in national contexts in scientific research on COVID-19, and in the analysis on the global public health impact as well as the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to address the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation and support the provision of clear, objective and science-based data and information on COVID-19;

Calls upon the United Nations to remain seized of this matter and to mainstream the gender perspective in the COVID-19 response and recovery, inter alia, through the inclusion of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and other United Nations entities, funds, programmes and agencies in relevant actions at Headquarters and in the field, including humanitarian assistance, under the leadership of the Secretary-General;

Requests the Secretary-General to follow up this matter within existing reporting, as appropriate, and within existing resources.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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