UN Women’s Coronavirus Propaganda Campaign

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

UN Women’s Coronavirus Propaganda Campaign

WASHINGTON / June 18, 2020 – The United Nations issued a warning on February 2 about a “massive infodemic,” which the UN described as “an over-abundance of information – some accurate and some not – that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance.” (1) Ironically, one of the most egregious examples of such misinformation is coming from one of the UN’s own agencies, the UN Women.

In times of uncertainty, persons look for reliable sources of information, which in the case of domestic violence are police reports. As commentator Wendy McElroy explains, police accounts “ground DV in reality, with real names and verifiable details rather than anonymous reports.” (2) Unfortunately, UN Women chose to disregard this common-sense advice.

On April 6, UN Women director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka issued this chilling statement: “We see a shadow pandemic growing, of violence against women.” (3) Then UN Women released, “COVID-19 and Ending Violence Against Women and Girls” that featured a series of predictions based in information received from abuse helplines (4). Neither of these documents cited police report data.

Over the subsequent weeks, UN Women issued a series a press releases, issue briefs, and reports featuring fear-producing terms such as “alarming upsurge,” “one of the greatest human rights violations,” “shadow pandemic of violence,” “horrifying global surge,” and so forth. This past Friday, the United Nations issued yet another report making the frightening claim that “Confinement under stay-at-home orders is ‘a perfect storm’ for violent behaviour behind closed doors.” (5) Again, nothing from police reports.

So what do police reports say? In Albania, Australia, Netherlands, Russia, and Spain, police reports show domestic violence has fallen amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In Austria and Canada, some cities have seen a decline, while other locales have seen no change. India and Tasmania have had steady numbers, as well (6).

A similar picture emerges in the United States. Among reports gathered from 33 police departments across the country, 11 noted a decline and 19 saw level numbers of domestic violence cases. Only three offices reported an increase of 10% or more in domestic violence cases, and these increases were small (7).

While domestic violence has increased in some places, no police department has reported numbers that remotely resemble the “horrifying global surge” or “alarming upsurge” that UN Women predicted.

Plus, none of the UN Women reports mention that domestic violence against men and boys is as commonplace as abuse directed to women and girls (8).

But these inconvenient truths didn’t deter the harmful myth from spreading far and wide across the globe. A Google search on the words “UN Women,” “COVID,” and “domestic violence” turned up 413,000 results.

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.” (9)

In FY 2019, Congress appropriated $8.5 million for UN Women (10). The Coalition to End Domestic Violence asks, Did Congressional appropriators intend this money to be used to underwrite a domestic violence myth that increasingly resembles a well-orchestrated propaganda campaign?

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