Prime Minister of Iceland and Austrian Minister of Equality discuss COVID-19 and gender equality

Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland and Susanne Raab, Federal Minister for Women and Integration in Austria had, earlier this week, a conference call where they discussed the effects of the current coronavirus pandemic on women and gender equality and COVID-19 recovery measures.

The restrictive measures taken to control the outbreak of the virus have resulted in a surge in domestic violence throughout Europe which remains a major threat to women ‘s health. The ministers discussed how to step up efforts to effectively support women ‘s rights.

Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister, said:

“Like in all crisis the gendered impact is clear. Based on experiences from the economic breakdown in 2008 the Icelandic government has emphasized targeted measures aimed at combatting violence and help survivors with allocating funding to awareness raising, to housing of survivors and treatment of perpetrators. Considering the statistic, the COVID-19 crisis reveal that we are faced with an epidemic of violence against women and strong international cooperation is needed to respond effectively.”