A Crisis within a Crisis: Climate Change and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Trinidad and Tobago: A Narrative Review

Across the world, Stay at Home (SAH) and State of Emergencies (SOE) have been executed at various levels of intensity to preserve the lives and livelihoods of men, women, and their families against the Covid-19 pandemic. However, while these policies were implemented to protect lives, they also became a barrier to the security of men and women who are victims of domestic violence. Indeed, the literature has highlighted a worrying trend, in that there appears to not only be a rise in the various forms of domestic violence against victims resulting directly from the SAH measures but also in the context of climate change, issues of lack of safety, food insecurity and economic insecurity in a Covid-19 environment have all served to intensify the experiences of victims. Using a secondary research methodology, the primary focus of this chapter would be to explore the prevalence of non-extreme forms of domestic violence offences in Trinidad and Tobago occurring during the Covid-19 pandemic, its connection to climate change events, and how these changes are likely to fuel domestic violence.