Post-pandemic socio-economic situation: women and human rights

Moderator: Simona Oddo Casano

Speakers: Gaia Di Scalzi (Italy), Ana Gaitero (Spain), Diva Criado (Spain), Herng Su (Taiwan), Marcia Scantlebury (Chile)

The AMMPE Congress, postponed several times due to Covid, necessarily had to deal with the repercussions that this pandemic has generated in society and in different areas of life (personal and professional), with particular regard to what it meant for women. With this incipit began the panel coordinated by Simona Oddo Casano, during which some very worrying data were provided both on what has been and on what could be in the future at a medium distance in time, in the absence of corrective measures.

The first speaker, Gaia Di Scalzi, journalist director of the integrated consultancy company «Utopia» and host of the web format on women and empowerment «Strongher», illustrated the specifics of the Italian pre and post pandemic situation: what was the role of women during the pandemic in consideration of the fact that they have always been the only «care givers»; how the world of work has changed for women, which has always been plagued by the obligation of balancing between being a mother and a worker, as well as by their very limited presence in the top positions of even different working situations.

But, in addition to the Covid issue, gender-based violence was also explored, which must be fought with specific laws and against which there is still a lot to do.

The second speaker, Ana Gaitero, journalist, militant in Gamag Europe (Global movement to promote gender equality through the media),  introduced this theme with a look at Europe, providing the worrying percentages of female victims of physical or sexual violence. She then recalled the existence of a «European Strategy for Gender Equality» (2020-2025) and underlined how, for its effectiveness, individual States must identify common indicators and provide comparable data: a coordination that has not yet been achieved .

The third speaker, Diva Criado, lawyer, journalist and writer on human rights, author of the book “Women in Colombian politics”, spoke again on gender violence. In her speech, from perspective, she noted the essential need both for specific legislation against gender violence and for a profound attention to the environment in which violence matures, apparently ascribed to the private life of women, but in fact attributable to the whole society: there are still many stereotypes, cultural habits, social indifference, obstacles and inequalities that promote / maintain discrimination and violence.

Herng Su, Vice President of the National Chengchi University of Taipei and columnist of the «United Daily News» on new media and political communication technologies which, in connection with a country today in a very difficult situation for its own freedom, addressed the issue of information (and communication systems in general) during the pandemic. This was the starting point to remind everyone how being a correct journalist means having recourse to reliable and truthful sources, scrupulously verifying the facts, providing reliable information.

Then concluded the panel Marcia Scantlebury, journalist, President of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago de Chile. Her speech, moving in the description of what the Museum represents for all people who deeply believe in democracy and freedom, wanted to be a testimony of how important is the presence and direct involvement of women in the reconstruction phase that countries often find themselves having to face, after a coup d’état (as in the case of Chile), after an unpredictable planetary emergency (as in the case of the pandemic).