during emergencies include ensuring nondiscrimination and equal protection of employment, as well as the right of access to employment, especially for disadvantaged and marginalized individuals and groups.177 Examples of impacts on women: • Because women and men occupy different positions in the labour market, emergency measures (and assessment of risk to health, if they continue to work during an emergency, as well as to livelihoods, if they cannot work) that target specific sectors will have differing impacts on equal opportunities to work. Women make up a large share of workers in some of the sectors that have been hardest hit by COVID-19, because they depend on face-to-face contact, yet are not considered “essential”, such as the travel industry, hospitality, food and beverage services, leisure and arts industries, retail and other services (hairdressing salons, real estate agencies, laundries, childcare facilities). Preliminary analysis suggests that lay-offs178 and lost working hours179 that can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted women in precisely these sectors. Discriminatory treatment of working women, including pregnant women, new mothers and older women, has also been reported. Employers have either required them to take sick leave or annual leave, or have pressured them to take voluntary redundancy.180 Specific groups of women have faced greater job losses than men. For example, young women’s unemployment rates have increased dramatically since February 2020 in the United States and Canada, in part due to their representation in the above-mentioned sectors.181 Similar trends have been seen elsewhere in the OSCE region.182 In the United States, the unemployment rates for 177 CESCR, “General Comment No. 18: The Right to Work (Art. 6 of the Covenant)”, op. cit. note 17, para. 31. 178 In Ireland, for instance, an estimated 140,000 people were made redundant in March 2020, representing restaurant workers, pub and bar staff and crèche and childcare workers. See: RTE News, “How Will I be Reimbursed If I Have Been Laid Off Over COVID-19”, 19 March 2020, <https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0316/1123480-coronavirus-ireland/>. See also, UN, “Policy Brief: The World of Work and COVID-19”, op. cit., 190, p. 2. 179 In Latvia, twice as many women as men were receiving the government’s “downtime allowance” (a subsidy for people who had previously earned less than 700 Euros per month and who had been forced into inactivity due to the anti-coronavirus measures), mainly in the hospitality and catering sector. European Network of Legal Experts in Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination, Flash report- Latvia, “Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Equality”, 6 July 2020, <https://www. equalitylaw.eu/downloads/5176-latvia-impact-of-covid-19-measures-on-gender-equality-in-latvia-130-kb>. 180 Oppenheim, M., “Pregnant Women and New Mothers Face Redundancy During Coronavirus Crisis, Warns Equality and Human Rights Commission”, The Independent website, 16 May 2020, <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ home-news/coronavirus-pregnant-women-mothers-redundancy-lockdown-a9516871.html>; The Croatian Office of the Ombudsman has reported on cases of employers not accommodating women to work from home and pressuring them to take leave. See: Equinet, “How Can Equality Bodies Put Equality Between Men and Women at the Heart of the Response to COVID-19 Across Europe?”, <https://equineteurope.org/2020/how-can-equality-bodies-put-equality-between-women-and-men-at-the-heart-of-the-response-to-covid-19-across-europe/>; Similar incidents were also reported in Tajikistan; Interview with expert in Tajikistan, conducted 21 May 2020. 181 In Canada, unemployment increased by 20.4 percentage points for young women, as compared to 14.3 percentage points for young men; In the United States, the unemployment rate for young women increased from 7.5 per cent to 29.8 per cent, and for young men from 8.5 per cent to 24.0 per cent. See ILO, “ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the World of Work. Fourth edition, Updated Estimates and Analysis, 27 May 2020, p. 11, <https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/ coronavirus/impacts-and-responses/WCMS_745963/lang--en/index.htm>. 182 Ibid.: and The Guardian, “Coronavirus Lockdown to Hit Low-Paid, Young and Women Hardest, Warns IFS”, 6 April 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/06/ coronavirus-lockdown-to-hit-low-paid-young-and-women-hardest-warns-ifs>. 51