A/HRC/47/38 Working Group participated in a number of other side events. The Working Group also organized an event on the 10-year anniversary of the establishment of its mandate.5 II. Thematic analysis: women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health rights in crisis A. Introduction 8. The full enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health rights is indispensable to the ability of women and girls to exercise all other human rights and for the achievement of gender equality. Access to sexual and reproductive health services, goods and information is essential at all times, especially in situations of crisis. Crises exact a disparate and heavy toll on the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls, compounding and further deepening the systemic disadvantages and discrimination that they face. 6 The COVID-19 pandemic has brought global economic strife and triggered multiple local and individual crises, against a backdrop of countless pre-existing crises, including political, social, economic, public health and environmental crises. Women and girls have been disproportionately affected by them all. 9. In the present report, the Working Group draws attention to the widespread failure of States to adequately recognize, respect, protect and fulfil the sexual and reproductive health rights of women and girls, both before and during times of crisis, as marked by specific events, and formulates a set of recommendations to address crucial gaps. The Working Group wishes to express its gratitude to all stakeholders for their contributions made to the preparation of the report, including by responding to a questionnaire and participating in consultations. B. Conceptual and legal framework 1. Understanding crises from the perspective of the rights of women and girls 10. Crises are often defined as an event or a series of events representing a critical threat to the health, safety, security and/or well-being of a community or other large group of people. 7 They are understood to be times of great difficulty and danger or threatening situations, requiring urgent action,8 and range broadly among various scenarios, from armed conflict and natural disasters to political instability and socioeconomic strife, as well as pandemics, to name a few. 11. The Working Group considers that the focus on the “event” in the understanding of a situation of crisis may divert attention from key underlying factors that make a given situation “critical” for various populations, especially women and girls, and may thereby affect the formulation of effective preventive measures and policy responses. If the focus is strictly placed on a sudden event or a series of events as the defining element of a crisis, the gendered impact experienced by women and girls and the underlying determinants of the crisis which affect them in very specific ways are at risk of not being fully addressed. 12. Gender inequality, manifesting in systemic disadvantages for women throughout their life cycle and gender-based violence, is viewed by many women around the world as a crisis in itself, one that has been normalized by centuries of patriarchal, colonial and racialized legal and policy frameworks and institutions and deepened by the non-implementation of 5 6 7 8 4 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/UN_WGDAW_10_years_anniversary.aspx. See A/HRC/26/39; A/HRC/32/44; and the Working Group’s statements, of 20 April 2020, entitled “Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic must not discount women and girls”, and, of 14 July 2020, entitled “COVID-19 and increase in gender-based violence and discrimination against women”. See A/HRC/28/76. Paul Shrivastava, “Crisis theory/practice: towards a sustainable future”, Industrial and Environmental Crisis Quarterly vol. 7, No. 1. See also International Fund for Agricultural Development, “Guidelines for disaster early recovery”, 2011.