The COVID-19 pandemic caused dilemmas for the most vulnerable populations around the world. This article describes the gendered effects of the pandemic on Ugandan women’s rights and wellbeing and provides suggestions for local and international practice. Mandatory lockdowns and movement restrictions created negative implications for women’s attainment of economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights and intensified pre-existing gender inequalities between women and men. The findings of intensified gender inequities, gender-based violence, sexual abuse, scanty access to reproductive health services and social justice, and barriers to participation in education, employment and politics indicate that response measures were not aligned with the government’s legal and policy framework for addressing gender inequities. This research indicates that governments, civil society organisations and the international community must undertake proper gender analysis in designing response measures and guidelines not only for COVID-19 but also in other emergencies. All response measures during emergencies must be coordinated, monitored and evaluated to ensure efficient and effective protection of the vulnerable and conformity to human rights standards.

COVID-19 大流行给世界上最脆弱的人群带来了困境。本文描述了大流行病对乌干达妇女权利和福祉的性别影响，并为当地和国际实践提供了建议。强制性封锁和行动限制对妇女实现经济、社会、文化、政治和公民权利产生了负面影响，并加剧了男女之间先前存在的性别不平等。性别不平等加剧、基于性别的暴力、性虐待、难以获得生殖健康服务和社会正义以及参与教育、就业和政治方面的障碍表明应对措施不符合政府的法律和政策框架解决性别不平等问题。这项研究表明，政府、民间社会组织和国际社会在设计应对措施和指南时必须进行适当的性别分析，不仅针对 COVID-19，而且针对其他紧急情况。必须协调、监测和评估紧急情况下的所有应对措施，以确保有效保护弱势群体并符合人权标准。