No country has been spared the coronavirus, nor the scourge of domestic violence which has surged during lockdowns, as the world marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Wednesday.
From a spike in rapes in Nigeria and South Africa, increased numbers of women missing in Peru, higher rates of women being killed in Brazil and Mexico and overwhelmed associations in Europe: the pandemic has aggravated the plague of sexual violence.
According to UN data released in late September, lockdowns have led to increases in complaints or calls to report domestic abuse of 25 percent in Argentina, 30 percent in Cyprus and France and 33 percent in Singapore.
In essentially all countries, measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus have resulted in women and children being confined at home.
"The house is the most dangerous place for women," Moroccan associations noted in April as they pressed authorities for "an emergency response".
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