SUDAN: Gender-based violence still rampant in Darfur, say aid agencies
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: December 11, 2006
rights violations of women and girls in Darfur, Sudan, WUNRN
also pastes with this release, continuing stories from past WUNRN
releases about these gender atrocities in Sudan.
SUDAN: Gender-based violence still rampant in Darfur, say aid
agencies
Displaced women in Zamzam camp, North Darfur. |
NYALA, 5 Dec 2005 (IRIN) – Humanitarian agencies have called
for increased efforts to prevent sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) in
war-torn western Sudan, saying such acts against women violate their human
rights.
The call was made during a meeting in Nyala, the capital of South
Darfur State at the start of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence
campaign, on 25 November.
The campaign links 25 November, the
International Day Against Violence Against Women and 10 December, International
Human Rights Day.
“Violence is not inevitable,” said Hassan Mohtashami,
a UN Population Fund (UNFPA) representative in Sudan. “Rather, it is often
predictable and preventable. A number of interventions can be promising and
effective in preventing violence and reducing the harm caused when it does
occur.”
UNFPA has been mandated to initiate GBV prevention and treatment
programmes in Darfur. It is working with federal and state officials to
implement measures to protect women and girls, change harmful policies and build
the capacity of UN agencies, government institutions and NGOs in the
region.
“The impact of the conflict is very clear in all aspects of life.
But it’s more clear on women, children, and the elderly because they are most
fragile,” noted Elhaj Atalmnan Idris, the deputy governor of South
Darfur.
“I hope that we can learn to respect women and appreciate their
role in life as the mother, the sister, the daughter, the colleague in the
office,” he added.
GBV, particularly the rape of women and girls by
armed groups, has been widely reported throughout Darfur. According to state
records, however, only five cases of rape have been prosecuted, resulting in
three convictions so far.
An important impediment to the effective
prosecution of perpetrators is a mandatory form, known as Form 8, which women
are required to fill out in the event of a rape before being attended to by
police or medical personnel.
Aid workers said the sensitive nature of
GBV makes women reluctant to fill in the form. Many of them therefore do not
report the crime or receive timely medical treatment.
The deputy
governor insisted, however, that this form was no longer mandatory. According to
Decree 17, which the governor signed on 6 March, women in South Darfur should
have access to medical attention without having to fill out the form.
“We
believe firmly that the humanitarian situation has witnessed a remarkable
improvement. But we are still looking for more opportunities, more
improvements,” Idris stated.
Mohtashami said actions that could prevent
GBV included educational programmes in schools, educating families and peer
groups to prevent child abuse and youth violence, improving emergency response
systems and providing trauma care and access to health
services.
“Violence continues to terrorise millions of women and girls
regardless of geography, race or socioeconomic status,” Mohtashami
noted.
Globally, the UNFPA representative added, one in every three women
suffers some form of violence in her lifetime and one in four will suffer
violence by an intimate partner.
An earlier report released by UNFPA and
the UN Children’s Fund said a study had shown that sexual violence was
consistently reported during attacks on villages – especially when women and
girls left the camps.
“Although the women … were asked no direct
questions with regard to sexual and GBV, the issue came up in most focus groups
when discussing the health impacts of the conflict,” observed Roselidah Ondeko,
GBV team leader for UNFPA, at the time.
“Unmarried girls were the most
affected, and some did not seek health care in clinics due to stigma and shame,”
the report said. Women in the focus groups cited “physical injuries due to
beatings, rape, miscarriages, excessive bleeding or injuries sustained during
flight from the enemies” as some of the health problems they had
suffered.
Sexually transmitted diseases, malnutrition, irregular
menstrual cycles and psychological disturbances such as nightmares were also
frequently mentioned by the women.
The Darfur conflict pits Sudanese
government troops and allied militias like the Janjawid against two main rebel
groups, the Sudanese Liberation Army/ Movement and the Justice and Equality
Movement, who claim to be fighting against the marginalisation of their region
by Khartoum.
According to the UN, some 3.4 million people continue to be
affected by the conflict, of whom 1.8 million are internally displaced and
200,000 have fled to neighbouring Chad. The majority of those affected are women
and children.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Political Rights
the Child
Children
Charter on People’s Rights with Regard
Rights in Africa
By Opheera ZAM ZAM CAMP, Sudan, May 7 (Reuters) – Darfuri Sumaya Hassan This pattern is repeating itself in many of the camps in Sudan’s Eighteen-year-old Mohamed hid her face in shame. Her brown eyes “I’ve lost my future now. No man will come to marry me,” she said She fled a government attack on her town on Thabit more than a year Mohamed said three soldiers from a nearby camp surrounded her, a One of the soldiers, from the Dinka tribe in southern Sudan, told The women were forced into straw huts by the remaining two soldiers SCREAMS “He grabbed me by my hands and said ‘now I’m going to make you a Then he threw her onto the floor on her back and raped her, she Rape is a taboo subject in Sudan’s traditional Muslim society, and Mohamed said African Union forces, who are monitoring a shaky Both women and their families said they felt helpless and “If this happened once or twice since they arrived and then it “What can we do, the African Union don’t follow up and the The AU does not have a peacekeeping mandate in Darfur, but monitors The day after the rape, residents said the entire camp demonstrated,
demanding that no government soldiers come into the camp. ____________________________________________________________________________________
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