UN Women Pushes COVID Abuse Myths, Exploits Women’s Fears

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

UN Women Pushes COVID Abuse Myths, Exploits Women’s Fears

WASHINGTON / December 13, 2020 – UN Women, an agency of the United Nations, recently made the alarming claim that the COVID-19 pandemic has “intensified” violence against women (1). But numerous independent analyses reveal the falsity of the UN Women’s statement (2), and suggest a different agenda may be at work.

In the United States, the number of abuse-related police calls for service declined in seven cities by an average of 2% (3). And the number of rapes fell in 2020 by 12%, according to the FBI (4).

Especially revealing is the number of partner homicides committed by spouses, boyfriends, and girlfriends, which has remained steady in recent years (5):

2018: 1,251 partner homicides
2019: 1,182
2020: 1,191

Separate analyses in Australia (6), England (7), as well as in Albania, Austria, Canada, India, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and Tasmania (8) all reported no increase in domestic violence as a result of COVID stay-at-home policies.

Misleading and false claims on this topic are rife. For example, one media account made the startling claim that “The National Domestic Violence Hotline is also reporting a surge in calls from victims.” (9) But a review of calls to the National Hotline reveals no “surge” – the number of calls remained steady from 2018 to 2020. (10)

The UN Women’s claim of “intensified” violence was based on responses to this question: “Which, if any, of the following have you or any other woman you know experienced since the start of COVID-19? [emphasis added] But commentator James Baresel reveals the illogic of this claim: “Suppose 1 out of 100 women experienced violence. Suppose also that that 1 woman is known by 66 of the 100. 1% of those women would have faced violence. 67% would have either faced violence or known a woman who had.” (11)

UN Women concludes that the country with the highest rates of COVID-related domestic violence is Kenya. But this is unlikely, given that Kenya enjoys one of the lowest COVID death rates in the world (12).

But dubious research methods and implausible findings aside, UN Women has mastered the art of turning a public health crisis in a public relations bonanza.

In early 2021, UN Women director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka issued this chilling statement: “We see a shadow pandemic growing, of violence against women.” (13) UN Women subsequently issued a series of press releases and reports featuring fear-producing warnings such as “alarming upsurge,” “one of the greatest human rights violations,” “shadow pandemic of violence,” “horrifying global surge,” and more.

The prize for the most alarming — and least probable — statement goes to the UN Department of Global Communications that warned, “Confinement under stay-at-home orders is ‘a perfect storm’ for violent behavior behind closed doors.” (14)

Commentator Corrine Barraclough has remarked, “The myth that domestic violence is surging in lockdown will become one of the biggest lies the gendered narrative leans on for additional funding.” (15)

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