Women Peace and Security, and Covid-19 In Asia-Pacific

Abstract

In countries across Asia and the Pacific, the challenge of COVID-19 is escalating. Governments are taking increasingly strong actions that have serious negative implications for peace and security, and the rights of women and girls. The enactment of national emergency powers, introduction of military checkpoints and lockdowns, closed borders, and restrictions on citizens’ movement and speech, all mirror a governance context similar to that of a conflict setting. Across the region, leaders are using warlike terminology of “battling an invisible enemy” to describe efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, furthering the conflict-like social dynamics.

Crisis and conflict have profound and disproportionate impacts on women and girls, amplifying pre-existing inequalities. In wartime, women and girls experience a lack of food and housing security, loss of livelihoods, a heightened vulnerability to gender-based violence, and an increased burden of unpaid care
work. The challenges brought by COVID-19 threaten to replicate these vulnerabilities.

In Asia-Pacific, COVID-19 policy and legislative responses are being led predominantly by male decision-makers and political leaders. These security-driven approaches largely fail to engage women in leadership and peacebuilding, which is vitally important to social, political and economic recovery. Women in the region are fierce actors for peace and preventers of conflict. In contexts including Nepal, Timor-Leste and Bougainville, women’s leadership has been proven time and again to support peacebuilding and recovery.
These lessons should be replicated in the recovery from COVID-19. Furthermore, COVID19 has strong potential to act as a driver of conflict and to inflame discrimination against those perceived to be carrying the virus, and women must be supported to promote social cohesion in this time of social distancing.