As the world grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic, a shadow pandemic of violence against women and girls is emerging around the world. Like many organisations, the Sigrid Rausing Trust’s grantees are sounding the alarm about the rapid and widespread increase in abuse, and telling us how funders can stand with them to respond.

Women activists from the Western Balkans and Turkey determined to change the way they prevent violence against migrant women

If there is support, refugee and migrant youth who are currently residing in Serbia show great motivation for personal progress, and their resilience and ability to adapt to new life circumstances is extraordinary, as is their readiness to face the situation and take the initiative.

A threat is violence in itself, and it must be treated that way. It is also necessary to develop society consciousness that violence is unacceptable, including the social responsibility of reporting it. Children should be spoken to on these topics as early as elementary school, especially boys, who should be ‘equally repelled by rape as by cannibalism’.

Danas: A third of human trafficking victims are recruited online

Visual: Bojan Milojević

Danas: How prevalent is labor exploitation in Europe during COVID-19 pandemic?

Photograph:  EPA-EFE/ JUSTIN LANE

An increasing number of people are losing their jobs, and the existing practices of workers' abuse in certain industries place labor exploitation at the forefront.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, organization Atina has, with the support of the Council of Europe, been particularly focused on the prevention of labor exploitation in the context of human trafficking. 

Andrijana Radoičić Nedeljković: Victims need safety, security, and certainty

Photograph: Piroshki photography

The hidden form of labor exploitation: domestic servitude during COVID-19

Illustration: https://umdgenderandglobalization.wordpress.com/

The pandemic had unforeseen impacts in many countries and different groups of people experience it differently. One of the most impacted groups were domestic workers, especially those who are being exploited in domestic servitude.