The Peace Operations chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, stressed the importance of continuing to prioritize the UN’s Action for Peacekeeping’s (A4P) Women, Peace and Security (WPS) commitments during the pandemic. The missions’ close relationships with women’s organizations have allowed them to “quickly and creatively continue to work” through UN assets – such as via radio, phone links and community alert systems – as well as by leveraging women-led structures, including women protection networks, early warning networks and gender working groups.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic poses a host of global health, economic, and security challenges, to include the continued challenge of combating transnational organized crime. While some believe this pandemic will disrupt and have a negative impact on the global operations of transnational organized criminal groups, the morbid reality is that these groups view the crisis as a lucrative opportunity. For the foreseeable future, we can expect organized criminal groups to quickly adapt in order to exploit the pandemic via various illicit schemes. In Italy, mafia groups are already demonstrating that they are intent on benefiting from the crime-related opportunities that the COVID-19 pandemic will present.

La irrupción en el escenario internacional de la COVID-19 ha tenido incalculables consecuencias, más allá de las fatalidades y otras repercusiones lamentables. La pandemia ha expuesto las vulnerabilidades del sistema internacional, así como la fragilidad intestina de los países para afrontar amenazas emergentes a la seguridad nacional, como las pandemias y otros riesgos.

On March 20, 2020, Pope Francis asked the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD) to establish a Commission consisting of five working groups with the objectives of: supporting local Churches, enabling them within their own local circumstances to be active agents of assistance in cooperation with Caritas Internationalis; focusing on the study of the pandemic, reflecting on society and a post-Covid-19 world, particularly in areas such as the environment, economy, employment, health, policy, communication and security; supporting the Holy See in its activities and in its relations with Countries and International Organizations, conveying to them the results of the research, dialogue and reflection undertaken; and funding its activities in the areas of research, analysis and communication.

El Ministerio de la Mujer del Gobierno de la Provincia de Córdoba (Argentina) ha elaborado este plan con 25 medidas específicas para responder al aumento de la violencia contra Mujeres y niños/as en el contexto del COVID-19, incluyendo la declaración como servicio esencial a las prestaciones de denuncia, asistencia y protección a mujeres en situación de violencia de género, una línea telefónica de emergencia 24 horas, uso de telefonía para garantizar denuncias y asistencia, permiso de circulación especial para mujeres o personas LGTTBI+ y sus hijas/os que se encuentren transitando situaciones de violencia, refugios de emergencia para mujeres en situación de violencia y sus hijos/as, albergues para varones violentos con acompañamiento psicológico y Ayudas económicas de subsistencia y asistencias alimentarias para víctimas de violencia de género, entre otras.

Latin American governments have implemented some of the swiftest measures in the world to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. El Salvador closed its borders to foreign travelers and imposed a national quarantine on March 12, a full week before the country registered its first case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. And on March 15, Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra suspended the constitutional right to free movement and deployed the military to enforce mandatory social distancing and arrest thousands who violated the restrictions. Although two of the region’s largest states—Brazil and Mexico—have resisted lockdowns and dismissed the danger that the virus poses, other major countries, such as Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador, were among the first in the Western Hemisphere to close schools and impose nationwide curfews.

El Ministerio de las Mujeres, Géneros y Diversidad del Gobierno de Argentina ha puesto en marcha una serie de medidas para enfrentar el COVID-19 desde un enfoque de género y diversidad, incluyendo medidas de asistencia integral ante situaciones de violencia por motivos de género, medidas específicas de articulación interinstitucional e intersectorial en situaciones de violencia, fortalecimiento de lazos comunitarios y solidarios para la prevención y asistencia de situaciones de violencia, recomendaciones y acciones en materia de cuidados durante el aislamiento social preventivo y obligatorio, medidas especiales para niñxs y adolescentes y población LGBTI+ durante el aislamiento social, medidas para promover la participación social y ciudadana a través de dispositivos virtuales y difusión de contenidos culturales para la igualdad de género.