Global rise in gender-based violence against women and girls during COVID-19 lockdown: An insight from Africa

Abstract

One of the negative impacts of COVID-19 lockdown was a drastic global increase in gender-based violence against women and girls. Therefore, this paper is an investigation on gender-based violence against women and girls during the lockdown, its causes, ethical implications and recommendations, with insights from African nations. The paper condemns gender-based violence as unethical as it violates the principle of human dignity. Recommendations on how to curb the menace both at sundry and pandemic period are nonetheless made. The work is qualitative research sourcing its data from library materials, reported cases and interviews. All the data collected in the course of this study are interpreted with the application of hermeneutics, critical analysis and logical reasoning.

Keywords:

• Gender-Based Violence
• Gender-inequality
• Pandemic
• COVID-19
• Coronavirus

1. Introduction

Gender-based violence which is a social phenomenon that is based on gender inequality has been one of the most popular human rights violations in the world. According to European Institute for Gender Equality (2022), at least 1 in 3 women has been victim of physical and/or sexual violence; I in 20 women has been raped; 1 in 2 has experienced sexual harassment; 1 in 5 women has experienced stalking; and 95% of victims trafficked for sexual exploration in European Union are women. According to The World Bank (2019), about 35% of women in the world have experienced physical or sexual violence either from intimate partner or non-partner; 7% of women in the world have been victims of sexual assault by someone other than a partner; “globally 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner”; while “200 million women have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting”. WHO (2021) also estimated that globally about 30% (1 in 3) of women “have been subjected to either physical and or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime”, with most of these victims being women aged 15–49 years. The report further reveals that “the prevalence estimates of lifetime partner violence range 20% in the Western pacific, 22% in high income countries and Europe and 25% in the WHO regions of Americas to 33% in the WHO African region, 31% in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region, and 33% in the WHO South-East Asia region”. Globally, 27% of the women and girls within this age range (15–49) have reported that “they have been subjected to some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partners”. All these figures cited may not be accurate but are indications that gender-based violence is a global problem.

Gender-based violence being a global issue, worsened during COVID-19 lockdown. Although the lockdown policy was made with a good intention of managing the spread of the disease, it consequently led to global surge in gender-based violence against women and girls. Therefore, this paper is an investigation on the upsurge of gender-based violence against women and girls during COVID-19 lockdown, its causes, ethical implications and recommendations, with insights from Africa.

2. Research methodology

This work is a qualitative research adopting review, survey and case study methods. Using review method, the researchers sourced its data from secondary sources such as books, journal articles, newspapers, magazines and archives of relevant agencies like United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, UNICEF, and European Union among others. All the cases of gender-based violence against women and girls cited in this work are those reported and published in either national or international dailies to avoid working with rumors or hearsays. This is also to ensure that this work is scientific, confirmable and repeatable. In order to discover the causes of the rise in the violence as well as the solutions to the problem, survey method was used. About 150 experts who work in agencies that are connected with gender issue such as police and military officers, staff of women affairs ministries, human rights organizations, female lawyers, scholars on gender equality, and staff of international organizations like World Health Organization, United Nations, World Bank, UNICEF among others were interviewed. Most of them were reached through WhatsApp, Facebook and various social media platforms making the work easier, while some were engaged in face-to-face interactions. The primary data collected from the interviews were organized into various headings/sub-headings supported with relevant data from various literatures. All the data collected in course of this study were interpreted with application of hermeneutics, critical analysis and logical reasoning (both deductive and inductive reasoning). The work also applied case study method as cases of gender-based violence that took place in Africa during the lockdown were used as insights to the global nature of the problem.

3. Conceptual clarifications

Gender-based violence: Gender-based violence (GBV) can be defined as any form of violence done against a person whether male or female, on the consideration of his or her gender. Gender-based violence can be against men or women, but women and girls are more vulnerable to it because of the patriarchal nature of our society. According to Bachman (1994), women are mostly victimized with about three quarters of violence against them committed by males. It is on this note that many scholars define gender-based violence in relation to girls and women, referring to it as sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), especially when it involves sexual abuse. One of such feminist scholars is Richters (1994), who defines gender-based violence as all painful acts or threats of such acts carried out against women because of their gender, making them to suffer physically, psychologically or sexually. GBV is more than this; it is not only those acts that result or have the tendencies to resulting to physical, sexual and psychological torture to them, but includes threats of such acts, use of force to compel them into doing things contrary to their wills, deprivation of rights, economic and social benefits, whether privately or publicly. It is often seen as a kind of hate crime committed against female-folk due to their gender.

Similarly, the UN (1993) Declaration on elimination of gender-based violence against women defines gender-based violence against women and girls as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private”. From these definitions, we can say that gender-based violence refers to any form of harm perpetrated against a person or group of persons because of their gender identity or orientation.

Forms of gender-based violence (GBV): GBV can take various forms such as Physical, Sexual, Socio-Economic, Verbal and Psychological violence. Physical gender-based violence involves physical attacks on women and girls which may result in injuries or even death. It may be in the form of pushing, beating, strangling, and use of weapons among others. Sexual gender-based violence includes sexual acts like trafficking, rape, and assaults etc, usually done without the person’s consent. Verbal gender-based violence means every forms of hate speech targeted on women because of their sex. This is very common and persists in many marriages, family relationships and society at large. Socio-economic deprivation can make a victim more vulnerable than other forms; as many women are denied opportunities that are likely to make them economically viable and socially protected. While psychological gender-based violence includes psychologically abuse behaviors like blackmailing, coercion, intimation, verbal attack, character assassination and economic violence, which reduce human dignity.

Examples of gender-based violence:

Example of domestic violence which include all acts of physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence that occur in family circle; sex-based harassment which includes unwelcome verbal and non-verbal and physical attack that is connected to sex that violates human dignity; rapes which means forceful sex; forced marriage which refers to marriage under coercion or force; early/child marriage whereby a child is married out before maturity; online violence which describes all forms of unlawful and illegal behaviors against women and girls through internet. Others include reproductive coercion, marital disappointment, honor killings, unwarranted divorce, human trafficking, genital mutilation, forced abortion, widowhood maltreatment, denial of fundamental rights like right to inheritance, freedom of speech, freedom to religious worship, freedom to make a choice among others.

Other gender-based related concepts: There are some terms that are so connected to gender-based violence that we have to clarify:

Sex: This refers biological and psychological differences in males and females, such as reproductive organs, hormones, chromosomes etc. Sex is usually assigned to individual at birth.

Gender: This is the socially constructed characteristics of women and men—such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men

Female: This refers to being a woman or a girl. It is a feminine gender.

Woman: This refers to an adult female.

Girl: This refers to a female child; normally below the age of 18.

Male: This refers to being a man or a boy. It is a masculine gender.

Gender-equality: This refers to a situation where both sexes enjoy equal rights and opportunities. In this case, women are equally valued and respected as men. This is an ideal state which feminist agitates for.

Gender-inequality: This refers to the imbalance between male and female folk in our society. Because of the patriarchal nature of our society, this imbalance is most often against women and girls in favor of male gender.

Patriarchy: This is a social construct where male is conceived as being more important than female. It is male dominance over female.

4. Theoretical framework

According to Vinz (2022), the theoretical framework is a “foundational review of existing theories that serves as a roadmap for developing the arguments you will use in your own work”. It explains the existing theories that support a work showing that the work is based on already established ideas, which can be used to justify its validity. In other words, the theoretical framework contextualizes and justifies research. Indeed, there are many theories that can be used to explain gender-based violence during the lockdown, but we align our work with feminist theory, because a “theory on violence which is gender blind and without a feminist lens inevitably results in the presentation of dominant patriarchal perspective” (Shaw, 2017). Feminist theory has a fairly long history, it did not receive wide acceptance until 1970s (Baird, 1992). Although feminist perspective has its limitation as it tends to confines itself within the fulcrum of male-female binary without cognizance to others whose gender is neither male nor female like transgender, but since our work is concerned with male-female relationship, this theory seems perfect.

A feminist perspective however provides a deeper understanding of how gender-based violence is connected to male dominated society, which is patriarchy. In other words, feminism uses “conflict theory and theoretical perspectives to observe gender in its relation to power, both at the level of face-to-face interaction and flexibility within social structures at large”. In the words of Cockburn (2004, p. 28), “Gender power shapes the dynamic of every interaction” in society. Males see themselves as real human beings while females as second class citizens thereby encouraging inequality, oppression and maltreatment against women and girls (Gayol & Kessler, 2015). Patriarchal views therefore legitimize gender-based violence against women and girls as a normal phenomenon, but feminism is a struggle and a philosophy against male dominance over female folk, emphasizing that all are created equal, and should be treated equally. According to Crossman (2020), feminist theory shifts its lens and focus from male viewpoint towards women predicament in order to “shine light on social problems, trends and issues that are otherwise overlooked or misidentified by the historically dominant male perspective within social theory”. Many people misunderstand feminism to be advocate to female superiority but this is not true; the primary goal of feminism is to establish a common pedestal both for men and women in society, in other words, gender-equality. Susan James, in a bid to suggest a schematic account of feminism, states:

Feminism is grounded on the belief that women are oppressed or disadvantaged by comparison with men, and that their oppression is in some way illegitimate or unjustified. Under the umbrella of this general characterization there are, however, many interpretations of women and their oppression, so that it is a mistake to think of it as a single philosophical doctrine, or as implying an agreed political program (James, 1998, p. 576).

From the statements of Susan James, it is obvious that there are various forms of feminist theory, but according McAfee (2018), all of them are united by two common grounds: Normative and Descriptive Components. Normative aspect states that men and women are created equal and should be treated with equal rights and respect. Descriptive refers to the present state of affairs that in regard to respect and rights, women are at disadvantage when compared with men. The primary goal of all the forms of feminism is to change the social imbalance (McAfee, 2018). It is this imbalance between men and women which is predicated on the patriarchal nature of our society that necessitated the upsurge in gender-based violence against women and girls during the COVID-19 lockdown. Although men are maltreated during the pandemic but their experiences are very minimal when compared with the experiences of the female-folk simply because of this social inequality.

5. Literature review

Gender-based violence being “a problem of pandemic proportion”, has triggered many scholars to write on the subject (Annan, 2006). Nancy A. 1996) edited a work that treated the issue extensively. The book, titled Understanding Violence against Women, identifies gender-based violence as a major social problem in United States of America. The book categorizes such violence into fatal violence which results into death and non-fatal violence which involves either physical, sexual and psychological pains or injuries. It states that fatal violence are so prevalent as the national survey estimated that in US alone about 2 million women are battered annually, while about 1500 murdered by their spouses and boyfriends. It further discloses that according to statistics from Bureau of Justice, about 3.8 million women were assaulted between 1992 and 1993, with 5000 reported cases of rape, and 75 percent of the abuses were committed by someone known to the victims, among which 29 percent committed by intimate persons such as husbands, ex-husband and boyfriends. The book identifies the causes of gender-based violence as biological factors such as “androgenic hormonal influences”, social factors such as socializations and social learning models that shape men’s mentality to seeing women as second class citizens, mental disorders and personality traits among men, cultural background, religious degradation of women, alcoholism, state system that encourages male domination and intimidation against women, peer influences, media, and most importantly the patriarchal nature of our society (pp.49–50). It also highlights the consequences of violence against women which include physical consequences such as injuries, pains, sicknesses, sexually transmitted diseases, maim, and death; psychological consequences such as trauma, fear, disbelief, confusion, withdrawal neurosis, melancholy, emotional scars, low self-esteemed, shame, guilt, depression, obsessive compulsive disorders, hypertension, alcoholism, drug addictions, revenge, madness and metal disorders, suicide and death; Socio-economic consequences such as unemployment, poor productivity among others.

Guruge, Roche and Catallo (2012) in an article titled “Violence against Women: An Exploration of the Physical and Mental Health Trends among Immigrants and Refugee Women in Canada” state that many researchers have harped on health and social challenges of gender-based violence against females, but few have devoted their studies to immigrants and refugee women. Focusing on these neglected set of women, using 60 women refugees and immigrants from Iran and Sri Lankan Tamil communities living in Toronto, Canada, the researchers reveal that the women had experienced various types of violence throughout the history of their lifetime, with physical abuse from their spouses occurring within the 12 months. The most common type of abuse reported by the participants include “insulting, criticizing, and intimidation by partner (psychological abuse); slapping, hitting, and shoving (physical abuse); and forced sexual intercourse and sexually degrading acts (sexual abuse) by a partner/spouse” (p.1). The paper also reveals that a substantial number of the participants had experienced mental and health impairments which could be attributed to the abuses, though not confirmed with certainty. They advise that various “health care professionals should therefore ask about violence routinely and take a holistic approach to health and violence that includes physical and mental health and illness”, while adding that settlement providers should be made available to women in their immigration and resettlement processes as new settlement poses great challenges to newcomers which can generates crisis among couples, leading to various forms of violence against wives by their husbands and third parties (p.13). Such molested women find it difficult to fight back or defend themselves due to the patriarchal nature of our society.

Larance et al. (2019) bemoan the plight of such women who dare to fight back against their oppressive partners. According to them, such women experience marginalization and ostracism by community members, as any reprisal attempt by a woman is seen as an abomination. This according to Shaw (2017) increases the femicide rate, which refers to deaths or murder of many women in our society. According to her, the number of women murdered annually by their partners is greater than their male counterparts. Explaining the cause of this ugly incidence, Shaw (2017, p. 2) writes “the theory of femicide brings attention to the patriarchal power structures which impose masculine dominance over the female embodied and social life”. In other words, the whole problem borders on the patriarchal nature of our society. She explains that this patriarchal nature is extended both in the economic aspect of our society. In her words: “As follows, violence against females can be located within patriarchal economic systems of power … ” (Shaw, 2017, p. 3).

Erin G. Clifton of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, identifies domestic violence as the commonest gender-based violence against women. He defines domestic violence as “physical, sexual, or psychologic (sic) abuse between people who live together. It includes intimate partner violence, which refers to physical, sexual, or psychologic (sic) abuse by a current or former sex partner” (Clifton, 2020). He explains that domestic violence can be against men but women are mostly victims as 95 percent of those that seek medical attention as a result of domestic violence are women. It can take place among the educated and illiterates, among the rich and poor, among people of all cultures, religious and political backgrounds. Clifton says that in America, 21 percent of the abused are women while 15 are men; this can be attributed to laws in America tending to protect women but turns out to give some women the audacity to abuse their husbands.

On the contrary, Africa is a continent with less and ineffective protective measures to the rights of females. The patriarchal level of African society is so high compared to their European counterparts. Uchem (2001) in her book: Overcoming Women’s Subordination envisions subordination as an ideology which places men as being superior and first in command. Basing her study in Igbo-African society in Nigeria, she states that in African society, a three years old boy is accorded respect more than a matured woman, thus casting a man as head of the family and the women as a subordinate. This practice in Africa goes contrary to human reasoning and may not be acceptable because no rational person would accord precedence to a three year old “man” over a matured woman as they possess higher intellectual powers and potentialities than him. According to Idyorough (2015), marginalization and inequality are the fundamental causes of gender discrimination and gender-based violence against women in Africa. He explains that African culture holds male-folk in high esteem while females are jettisoned and discriminated against. It is this inequality that encourages gender-based violence against women and girls in Africa.

There are many efforts to combatting gender-based violence globally. Among the efforts to is Violence Against Women Act. Jennings et al. (2021) appraised the effects of the Violence against Women Act on Law Enforcement. According to him, the chief goal of the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) “was to improve law enforcement responses to sexual and domestic violence by providing funding to expand prevention, enhance investigations, and increase services” (p. 69). He proves that the Act yielded positive results as there was an increase in reporting of such cases, investigation, prosecution and general well-being of women; yet the problem is not totally solved as law enforcement agents regard domestic violence as family matter, making them very reluctant in arresting and prosecuting offenders. “For example, many law enforcement agencies had specific policies that they would not intervene unless a witness specifically saw the assault, while others would not even respond to domestic violence calls for service” (Jennings et al., 2021, p. 70) This perception works contrary to the purpose of enacting the Act.

Obviously, most of these works reviewed describe “the how and why” of gender-based violence against women and girls but not at the time of the pandemic. It is Phillimore et al. (2022) on their articles titled ‘“We are Forgotten”: Forced Migration, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, and Coronavirus Disease-2019”, that has some close link with this research, yet with a clear difference. Phillimore and his research team reveal that many women were forced to migrate from their countries to another as a consequence of post-COVID-19 economic effects. Some were deceived with promises of greener pastures only to end up being victims of sexual abuse. Their experiences were horrible and nasty. Although the paper comes closer to the project at hand as it harps on the suffering the victims of gender-based violence who were forced to migrate to other countries as a result of the unfavorable effect of the pandemic, it does give us a picture of the kind of rise in gender-based violence against women and girls during the COVID-19. It is rather a study on post-COVID effect on women and girls, and does not address gender-based violence against women and girls during the Coronavirus lockdown. This research therefore undertakes the fill up of this lacuna observed.

6. COVID-19 lockdown and cases of gender-based violence in Africa

Global media reports gave situation reports on sexual and gender based violence against females in Europe during the lockdown, without exempting Africa. Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and Uganda are among African countries with high number of cases, while Spain, China and France top among European countries. Kenya and Nigeria witnessed 30–50 percent average increase in SGBV since the lockdown began (Ajayi, 2020).

The situation in Europe was well highlighted, indicating greater upsurge in gender-based violence against women and girls (VAWG) in China, Spain and France, though Africa was not exempted. Liberia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Cote d’Ivoire are notable African countries with so many reports on such violence since the beginning of the pandemic. Kenya and Nigeria have average increase of SGBV of 30–50 percent since lockdown was enforced. This is an indication that states’ responses to COVID-19 contribute to the upsurge (Akudolu, 2021, pp. 4–5).

However, reports from Canada and South Africa as well as The Washington Post multi-country analysis reveal that there is no significant change in reporting rate before and during the lockdown (Htun & Jensenius,). Obviously, there is consistently poor reporting of GBV across the world, and the increase in the number of reported cases is a pointer that the incidence was more outrageous during the lockdown than ever. Although the use of Facebook, Whatsapp and other social media facilitated the reporting of crimes, it did not imply an increase in reporting of cases during the pandemic as the social media had been in existence before then. Commonest reported cases of gender-based violence during the pandemic are home violence, rape, sexual harassment and physical assault both from family members, members of the public and law enforcement agents.

Cases of home violence reported include the one that happened in Ghana in May 2020 which involved a man known as Victus Kuudiyiri, who attacked his wife, Amanda Basinbo, at night with an axe for denying him sex. He slashed her face and cracked her skull. The woman was rushed to the hospital and her fate was skeptical (see Mordey, 2020 for details). A woman had hot soup poured on her by her friend, making her ears deaf and body full of scars (Ajayi, 2020). In Republic of Benin, a woman trader reported how her husband, who lost his job after the company where he worked shut down due to the pandemic, kept beating her constantly (Olivia, 2020). In May 2020, a Nigerian man wounded her wife severely and posted the picture of her bloodied body on Facebook, daring police to arrest him (Oja, 2020). The stories are endless.

However, in emergency periods like pandemics, women and girls are vulnerable to other forms of violence such as physical assault and battering. In March 2020, in Uganda, women who came out to hawk and sell their goods in order to feed their families were flogged by police. The government did neither provide any welfare nor palliative, and the situation became worrisome that some women had to violate the lockdown order in attempt to survive. Consequently, they were flogged and maltreated by policemen on duty (African Feminism, 2020). In April 2020, Mensah (2020), a journalist, reported to Face to Face Africa the case of five Rwandan soldiers who were caught raping women in a Kigali slum while enforcing lockdown in the country. Similarly in Nigeria, a lady, Pamela was trapped by the police for not wearing a facemask. According to the report, “they drove her to a guest house where one of the officers raped her till dawn after threatening to kill her if she did not cooperate”. The case was documented and submitted to Aljezeera.Three policemen beat a woman, Halima Abdulazeez, as she stepped out to a neighboring pharmacy to purchase medicine for her sick child. Vanguard video clips televised it (Vanguard Video, 2020. Also in April 2020, a woman accused a man of raping her in at a temporary shelter for displaced persons in Strandfontein in South Africa during the lockdown (see Staff Writer, 2020, Cape Time News).

According to Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, “over 3600 rape cases were recorded across Nigeria during the lockdown” (Iroanusi, 2020). The matter became a “pandemic” with many of them being committed against minors. Ejiofor (2020) wrote a report to UNICEF titled “COVID-19: Children suffer violence during Lagos lockdown” and narrated a story of Miss Rose, a 13 years old girl who was raped frequently by her father in their apartment in Lagos. Whenever she refused, the father would beat her severely. It was reported that “her stifled cries during one of those nights caught her neighbors’ attention, which finally led to Rose’s rescue” (Ejiofor, 2020). She was medically examined and found to be pregnant. The matter was reported to Mirabel Centre, managed by Partnership for Justice, a non-governmental and non-profit organization that is supported by UNICEF, providing medical and psychosocial services to victims of sexual violence. The father was taken to custody, while the center took care of the girl. The management of the center lamented: “We are worried. The lockdown led to an over 50 percent increase in the number of reported cases of sexual violence at our center. Up to 80 per cent of the cases were children” (Ejiofor, 2020).

7. Reasons for the increase in GBV during the lockdown

From the foregoing scenarios, there is a clearer link between GBV and COVID-19 lockdown than before. Although the fundamental reason increase in gender-based violence against women and girls during the lockdown in Africa is attributed to patriarchal nature of African society, there are however other social, economic and psychological reasons that worsened the situation. According to Ajayi (2020), a report from Center for Global Development adduces many reasons that appear rational regardless of context: “they include the economic strain of lockdowns, social isolation owing to the absence of regular social outlets, and exposure to exploitative relationships”. The lockdown restricted most men from having access to their “side chicks” and sexual partners. Schools were shut down; those male students who used to have “campus wives” that satisfied their sexual urges could no longer access them for sex. Many of them that could not control their urges exploded. This is in line with Sigmund Freud analytic theory which explains that many social vices are manifestations of suppressed tendencies (Cavell, 1993; Levine, 2000). In other words, if someone has sexual urge and suppressed it, it may explode like volcanic eruption in a way and manner that is not socially acceptable. This could take place in form of rape, sexual harassment and even other forms of violence. Freudian theory is not only applicable in sex but in other areas of life. A man whose mental powers are restrained may be forced to express them in the form of arguments. A person whose physical energies and strengths are constrained can express them violently. There must be expressions of urges, energies, tendencies and inclinations.

Another reason for the increase in violence during the lockdown was economic constraints. People were restricted from pursuit of their daily provisions, and many countries did not provide any or adequate palliatives or welfare packages to their citizens. This may be because resources were diverted to tackling the pandemic, or because of restricted movement, and yet they expected people to willingly obey the lockdown order (O’Donnel, Peterman and Potts, 2020). How do you expect a hungry man to keep obeying lockdown rules? A hungry man is an angry man. Angry man who has less control of himself may be too violent. Similarly, hunger can compel one to do the irrational. Thomas Hobbes made an intensive exposition on the driving force in man which he called “the instinct to survive” (Hobbes, 1946; Stumpf, 1994, p. 231). This instinct to survive drives man to do anything humanly possible to avoid unnecessary death. No one can accept sitting down, watching himself and family dying of hunger due to lockdown. Man must take a risk to survive and this is his very nature. It was the instinct to survive that pushed many women to go contrary to the lockdown order, and consequently and unfortunately, maltreated. Nevertheless, they should have no blame as all blame goes to the government who provided no solution to the possible challenges of their lockdown order.

However, these reasons can neither explain violence already occurring before the crisis nor violence by security personnel against civilian women on a daily basis. Such instances can be attributed to ineffective checks and balances of their activities, underlying cultural norms and social inequalities that normalize gender violence in many societies. A society, where men are more valued than women makes women vulnerable at any slightest provocation and unfavorable social change. Nevertheless, such violence, whether at normal period or during emergency, whether in Africa or developed world, contradicts the principle of human dignity, and therefore unjustifiable.

8. Gender-based violence as a violation of human dignity

Sexual and gender-based violence is a violation of human dignity which is fundamental to human ethics. Human dignity refers to respect and value for human beings, and is very significant in ethics, law and politics. The word “dignity” etymologically comes from Latin “dignitas” (worthiness), referring to the worth of human being. It means that human being should be valued, honored and treated with respect, because he/she is a human being, created in the image of God. Human dignity therefore can be defined as recognition that man possesses a special intrinsic value as human being, and must be treated with respect and honor, not with disdain. Every human being, regardless of the age, gender, status, ethnic, etc must be treated with respect. Human dignity can be violated in a number of ways: humiliation, instrumentalization and degradation, and all these are implied in GBV.

1. Humiliation: This refers to any act that humiliates or diminishes the self-worth of a person or group. Acts of humiliation may be contextual but we normally have an intuitive understanding of its occurrence. As Schachter (1983) notes, “It has been generally assumed that a violation of human dignity can be recognized even if the abstract term cannot be defined. “I know it when I see it even if I cannot tell you what it is””. But the word “humility” through its etymological root involves “downward spatial orientation” where “something or someone is pushed down forcefully held there” (Linder, 2006). This, therefore, implies injuries to peoples’ self-esteem and worth. GBV is a pure attack on victims’ self-worth and personality. It denies the victim of her rights, power and consents.

2. Instrumentalization: This is a situation where human beings are used as a means to an end and never as the end itself. This approach is based on Immanuel Kant’s moral imperative: “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means” (Kant, 1993). Kant insists that human beings are created in the image of God; he is a rational being; a rational being should not be treated as an object but as an end. Dealing with him/her requires his/her consent, reasoning, interest and welfare. Human beings have ultimate moral worth and need not to be instrumentalized. GBV reduces the victims to the level of ordinary objects. She is treated as mere object of sexual satisfaction. Her rights are denied, her consent not sought or obtained and she is dehumanized. She is left with psychological traumas, physical pains and health challenges. It is a wickedness of high order. It is unethical and must be dealt with. More so, Kant’s moral imperative can be rephrased as “do to others what you want others to do to you”. Obviously, the perpetrators would not like people to treat them as they treat their victims. They always avoid pain and suffering but love inflicting them on others. They hate being mistreated but go on maltreating others. This portrays them as brutish, irrational and inhuman.

3. Degradation: This refers to any act that degrades the value of human beings whether done with the person’s consent or not. It involves acts like prostitution, slavery, or when the state deliberately put a prisoner in extreme hash conditions. All forms of sexual and gender-based violence involve humiliation, instrumentalization and degradation. They are therefore a violation of human dignity, and ethically wrong. United Nations Universal Declaration of Human rights (1993) states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”. It adds that “Everyone is entitled to all rights and freedom set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, birth or other status”. Therefore, any gender-based maltreatment or violence is unethical, and has serious health, physiological, psychological and socio-economic implications on the victim, as discussed so far in some of our reviewed literatures.

9. Recommendations

There have been efforts by governments, international bodies and agencies to tackling violence against women and girls, but many of them are ineffective due to lack of awareness, poor funding, apathy towards enforcements and other bottlenecks. Therefore, we recommend:

1. Campaign and sensitization: Government and non-governmental organizations should embark on campaign and sensitization to raise people’s consciousness and conscience against it. This can be done through mass media and social gathering. Religious organizations have been playing wonderful roles in this direction. For instance, in Nigeria, Christians especially Anglican Communion has fought against widowhood oppression to the barest minimum through their decisions in their various diocesan synods. Similarly, women should be sensitized on various existing laws protecting their rights and dignity. Indeed, many laws exist that tend to protect women from various forms of molestation and deprivation, but many women are ignorant of them. More so, fear of retaliation from the perpetrators hinders many from reporting incidences of GBV or helping the victims, but with sensitization and assurance of protection, there would be a tremendous improvement (Soler-Gallart, 2009).

2. Criminalization of all forms of SGBV: Many forms of sexual and gender-based violence have been made criminal offences, but acts of genital mutilation, forced marriage, child marriage, marital rape and home violence are regarded as “family matters”, and therefore not criminalized. According to Jennings et al. (2021, p. 70), this perception “that domestic violence is a private situation that should be outside the purview of the criminal justice system influenced how law enforcement historically handled these cases”, pointing out three main responses from law enforcement for domestic violence cases as nonintervention, mediation and arrest, but the arrest is frequently low (Buzawa & Austin, 1993; Corcoran & Allen, 2005). As a matter of fact, family matters can as well be criminal offences. If the state prosecutes a man who kills his wife, what prevents it from prosecuting those that rape their wives, those that batter their wives, those that force their daughters to early marriage, those that indulge in genital mutilation? All forms of gender-based violence against women and girls should be criminalized, and be taken seriously by government and law enforcement agencies.

3. GBV special squad: There should be a special police squad on gender matters. The insensitivity of police in many countries towards reports on gender-based violence discourages women who are victims of it from reporting their cases. Police are often hostile to them and some are apathetic to their reports, leading to poor prosecution, delay or denial of justice (Buzawa & Austin, 1993; Corcoran & Allen, 2005; Jennings, 2021). In order to salvage them, many countries like Brazil, India and some others have set up special women police stations that specialize in women matters. In Nigeria, it was set up in 2016, and was published in Punch newspapers on 13^th May, 2016. This is a welcome development which other countries should emulate.

4. Special Tribunal on Gender Matters: There are many tribunals handling specialized cases in many states, ranging from election tribunal to road safety tribunal. These tribunals are established to ensure that certain matters that need urgent attention are treated with dispatch, to avoid delay of justice. Similarly, there is need for a special court, a tribunal on matters related to women and girls maltreatment. The necessity of this special tribunal on women matters cannot be overemphasized as:

Specialized courts provide a stronger possibility that court personnel will be gender-sensitive, experienced in the unique characteristics of violence against women cases, and may be able to process cases more quickly, reducing the burden on victims. Moreover, judges who consistently deal with cases of violence against women may see repeat offenders and can take appropriate action. Correspondly, the fact that fewer individuals will deal with these cases can help deter future violence because offenders will expect increasing penalties and greater accountability (UN Women, 2010).

In addition, specialized domestic violence courts have been established in some countries like Brazil, Spain, Nepal, United Kingdom, Venezuela, Uruguay, and many states in the USA with positive results. Other countries should also emulate this.

• (5) Emergency palliatives and welfare schemes: In Africa, the lockdown order was very difficult to obey, because there was little or no provision of palliatives and welfare to the masses. People were locked down without provisions of adequate palliatives. Hunger and natural instinct to survive made people violate the order. Consequently, many women were raped and abused both by law enforcements agents and hooligans. In times of emergency, lockdown should be the last resort, and must be done with provision of palliatives to enable the masses to obey the order. It is wicked to lock people without food. Do you want them to die? Many African leaders are very selfish. In some of the countries, we learnt that COVID-19 palliatives released to various state governments were not distributed, but hoarded, probably to be used in forthcoming election campaigns. It was during the protest against the activities of police that many of the COVID-19 palliative warehouses were broken by angry youths.

• (6) Active women’s affairs ministries and agencies: The ministries of women’s affairs must be active both during emergency and normal periods. It is very pathetic that the ministries charged with the responsibility of women issues were equally closed during lockdown. Other agencies that are concerned with women’s plight were also locked down. This is not proper. These ministries and agencies should not be locked down so as to ensure that the interests of womenfolk are protected. Their phone contacts should be made public during the lockdown to facilitate communication and reports. We also recommend proper funding of women’s affairs ministries and agencies for effective operations (Bacian, I & Hahnkamper-Vandenbulcke, 2022).

• (7) Prosecution of deviant officers: According to Donner and Jennings (2014, p. 208), “the law which constraints the behavior of people in society, also applies to those who enforce it”. It is ironic for officers who are entrusted with responsibility of enforcing the law to be defaulters of the law. As we have seen in this work, some of the gender-based violence against women and girls during the lockdown were committed by the officers responsible for enforcing the order. Such law enforcement agents should be prosecuted. This will act as a deterrent to others and give women a sense of security. We should not leave the activities of officers unregulated. The excesses of police and military personnel are unbecoming.

• (8) Elimination of patriarchal system in our society: A lasting solution to this problem is dealing with patriarchal system of our society, as patriarchy is the foundation of gender-based violence against women and girls (Shaw, 2017; Cockburn, 2004; Larance, 2019; Crossman, 2020). World Health Organization (2017) therefore suggested enactment and enforcement of policies which include: “ending discrimination against women in marriage, divorce and custody laws, ending discrimination in inheritance laws and ownership of assets, improving women’s access to paid employment, and developing and resourcing national plans and policies to address violence against women”. Once the fundamental cause is tackled the problem would be solved. However, patriarchy is endemic in African society, and therefore needs generational restructuring to be eliminated.

• (9) Implementation of gender-based violence policies: There are many policies, laws and acts to protect women and girls from every form of gender-based violence by various federal governments, World Health Organization, United Nations, African Union, ECOWAS, and European Commission. During the course of our interview with officers of some of these organizations and agencies, they made some of these policies available to us, which if implemented would go a long way to curbing this problem. It is very bad that some of these nice policies are only on papers without any atom of implementation. Until a policy is implemented, its purpose is defeated. The government and agencies involved must as a matter of urgency put the policies to work. Governments should make funds available for implementation of the policies as it was pointed out by relevant agencies that lack of funding militates against implementation of the policies (Bacian, I & Hahnkamper-Vandenbulcke, 2022).

10. Conclusion

From the findings of this paper, it is obvious that there was a global increase in sexual and gender-based violence against men and women during the COVID-19 lockdown because it was unprecedented, and there was no plan on how to curb it. According to Charkraborty et al. (2017), there is an international gap in thinking about how to prevent gender-based violence before it occurs. Certainly, COVID-19 is not the first and cannot be the last pandemic or emergency in the history of the world. Many have come and gone and others are still coming. Therefore, this paper and the recommendations made therein can be very helpful to policy makers in formulating adequate laws to checkmate GBV at sundry and during emergencies. Condemning GBV, we therefore uphold the statement of koffi Annan on gender-based violence:

Such violence is unacceptable, whether perpetrated by the state and its agents or by family members or strangers, in the public or private sphere, in peacetime or in times of conflict … as long as violence against women continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace (UN, Annan, 2006).

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Funding

The work was supported by the NO EXTERNAL FUNDER [NA].