Guidelines for protecting the rights of women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic

Any measures taken to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic must uphold and ensure human rights. States must ensure that their response is gender-sensitive and includes a differential approach that guarantees the rights of women and girls to live free of discrimination and violence, and to access the essential sexual and reproductive health services that they need as women. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI), and others have issued clear guidelines for States that should be used to craft measures to respond to the pandemic that also fulfill their human rights obligations. National and local authorities should be aware that in contexts of health, humanitarian, or other crises, gender gaps increase when the effects of these crises on women and women’s rights are not taken into account.