Rape, Sexual Violence High in Humanitarian Settings
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: November 14, 2011
WUNRN
Full Article: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94184
SOMALIA – RAPE,
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE SOAR IN DISPLACEMENT CAMPS
NAIROBI,
11 November 2011 (IRIN) – Deteriorating security, a culture of impunity and an
increase in attacks on internally displaced people (IDPs) in the central Somali
town of Galkayo, Mudug region, have resulted in a sharp increase in rape cases,
gender activists told IRIN. “Attacks on women have gone up dramatically in
the last two months and the severity of the attacks has become worse,”
said Silje Heitmann, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) gender-based violence (GBV)
specialist for south-central Somalia…….According to UNFPA, one of the
problems is the lack of proper data and, to address it, the agency started to
implement the Gender Based Violence Information Management System.”This
project was created in response to lack of a system throughout the GBV
community for collecting, analyzing and sharing data related to reported
incidents of GBV in a humanitarian context,” said Roar Bakke Sorensen,
communication specialist, UNFPA Somalia Country Office.
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Addressing Sexual
Violence in Humanitarian Settings
Sexual violence is common in humanitarian settings. It may become more acute
in the wake of a natural disaster and occurs at every stage of a conflict. The
victims are usually women and adolescents, who have often been separated from
their families and communities and whose care-taking roles increase their vulnerability
to exploitation and abuse. Breakdowns in law and order and in protective
societal norms mean that most perpetrators abuse with impunity.
In many conflicts, women’s bodies become battlegrounds, with rape used as a
method of warfare to humiliate, dominate or disrupt social ties. In the
aftermath of natural disasters, women and young people may be left
unaccompanied — out in the open or in temporary shelters — at the same time
that security lapses lead to increased lawlessness and chaos.
The impact of sexual violence, especially rape, can be devastating. Physical
consequences include injuries, unwanted pregnancies, fistula and HIV.
Widespread sexual violence is also endemic in many post-conflict situations,
where it can perpetuate a cycle of anxiety and fear that impedes recovery.
However, because reliable data about sexual violence in these situations is
scarce, UNFPA is spearheading
efforts to determine the scope of the problem in many different contexts.
Prevention
Sexual violence is not inevitable. Better policing, involving women in the
design of humanitarian assistance, working with displaced communities to
develop systems of protection, and ending impunity for perpetrators are just a
few of the actions that can help to minimize sexual violence. Information
campaigns and community education can help to raise awareness of the issue,
stimulate community dialogue, reduce stigma, and encourage survivors to report
incidents and seek care. Effective campaigns positively engage men and promote
reflection about cultural attitudes and gender inequalities that perpetuate
violence against women.
- In Colombia,
UNFPA’s advocacy on sexual violence issues resulted in improved policies
for women, including a law on the prevention of sexual violence and legal
enforcement for perpetrators of rape.
- In Afghanistan,
UNFPA supported the Afghan National Police to set up a centre that
specifically deals with family violence and female crime victims and which
is staffed by Afghan policewomen.
- In the Democratic Republic of
Congo, UNFPA has trained and financially supported police units for
Women and Children Protection Sections, and has engaged community groups
to educate peers on the existence of these special police units and their
sensitivity to the particular needs of women and children.
- In Darfur,
Sudan, UNFPA-supported sexual violence committees have worked with the
African Union Civil Police to arrange escorts for women and girls during
firewood collection, as well as to monitor IDP camps. UNFPA has also
successfully lobbied for an increased number of female Civil Police to be
deployed to Darfur.
- In Liberia,
UNFPA provided funding and support to the Ministry of Gender (MoG) which
resulted in sexual violence being taken up within the highest levels of
Government, as a core responsibility of the MoG.
- In the occupied Palestinian territories, UNFPA trained
and supported gender focal points in several ministries and government-run
institutions, and provided technical support to civil society
organizations to institutionalize gender and human rights principles.
- At the global level, UNFPA has developed an exhibition
of portraits from around the world focusing on actors and actions that
help to prevent sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations
Response
UNFPA’s country offices promote a multi-sectoral, holistic approach to
addressing sexual violence in humanitarian settings. Using a
survivor-centred and survivor-driven approach, UNFPA provides a wide range of
services to encourage social reintegration of survivors, including counseling
and assistance with livelihoods. It trains police officers, lawyers and judges
to ensure safe and ethical care for survivors, and works with all levels of
medical professionals to foster appropriate and timely responses.
Medical treatment is critical for someone who has been sexually assaulted. Survivors
need antibiotics to prevent infection and may require treatment for abrasions,
tears, or traumatic fistula, a devastating but operable injury that may occur
as a result of sexual assault.
In addition to physical injury, women and girls who are raped may be at risk
of unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection. If provided in time,
emergency contraception can prevent an unwanted pregnancy, and post-exposure
prophylaxis can prevent the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Much of UNFPA’s work to address the issue of gender-based violence in
humanitarian contexts is in the field of health response, and training other
first responders (such as police and community or women’s advocates) to more
effectively care for sexual violence survivors. For example:
- In countries such as Central African Republic, Uganda
and Nepal, UNFPA has trained health-service providers, security forces and
key decision makers to effectively address sexual violence.
- In Afghanistan, where survivors of violence can often
barely receive health services, UNFPA has worked through national actors
to mainstream gender and human rights issues into the health service
sector and successfully advocated to integrate violence against women
issues into the national training curriculum for health service providers.
- In Sudan,
UNFPA’s work with the Government resulted in sexual violence survivors
being able to directly access health services without first having to
visit the police.
At the global level, in late 2007 UNFPA partnered with UNICEF to lead two
regional “Caring for Survivors” workshops, in Timor-Leste and Jordan.
The training focuses on building knowledge and skills in various aspects
related to how responders communicate and interact with sexual violence
survivors in conflict-affected settings. At the heart of this process is the
emphasis on understanding and demonstrating a survivor-centred attitude, and
using survivor-centred communication skills.
Clinical
management of rape
Since 2005, UNFPA and UNHCR have partnered to conduct trainings for health
care providers working in refugee, internally-displaced person and other
humanitarian settings on the clinical management of rape survivors. The two-day
curriculum includes modules on taking a survivor’s history, collecting forensic
evidence, examining a survivor and prescribing treatment, including emergency
contraception, treatment of sexually transmitted infections and post-exposure
prophylaxis to prevent the transmission of HIV. To date, UNFPA has conducted
four regional training-of-trainers workshops in Geneva, Johannesburg, Nairobi
and Cairo. Of those who have been trained as trainers, many are now actively
engaged in training health providers in Nepal, Haiti, Liberia, Sudan,
Zimbabwe and Cote d’Ivoire (among other countries). In addition, national
trainings were conducted in over 10 countries, reaching nearly 500 heath-care
providers.
Overall
coordination
In late September 2005, as part of the humanitarian reform process, UNFPA
was tasked with coordinating gender-based violence issues in humanitarian
settings. Proper coordination of this complicated issue, which often engages a
wide range of UN and other actors, is vital to ensuring that survivors receive
adequate care, and that prevention efforts are varied, wide-reaching and
appropriate. As a development agency with growing experience in humanitarian
settings, UNFPA continues to forge new partnerships and to increase its human
resources and technical capacities to scale up its coordination efforts.
- UNFPA has been led the roll-out and operationalization
of the IASC
Guidelines for Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian
Settings to ensure coordinated, cross-cluster action to prevent and
respond to sexual violence.
- UNFPA has been working with partners to document ‘good
practices’ in coordinating efforts to end gender-based violence across a
range of humanitarian contexts.
- UNFPA helped mobilize a coalition of 12 UN entities to
create UN Action against Sexual
Violence in Conflict — a global forum that encourages country and
regional intra-UN partnerships for action.
- UNFPA is partnering with Ghent University in Belgium to
train senior-level sexual violence field actors to improve their
knowledge, understanding and communication skills to coordinate
multi-sectoral response to sexual violence in humanitarian settings.
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