Internally Displaced Women
Gender-based Violence
Displaced Women in Assam,
India
Viviane Dalles, 2007
Sexual and gender-based
violence is one of the most pervasive violations of the rights of women and
girls during armed conflict and displacement. It is often employed as a
strategy of war by armed actors to gain power. Women and girls are at risk of
sexual and gender-based violence in most internal displacement situations. This
can include rape, forced impregnation, forced abortion, trafficking, and sexual
slavery. While men and boys may also be affected, research indicates that
sexual and gender-based violence predominantly affects women and girls.
Despite progress in the development of law and policy on addressing sexual and
gender-based violence in armed conflict, individual cases as well as patterns
of abuse against displaced women and girls continued to be reported during
2006. As pointed out in a report on Uganda by a consortium of NGOs,
gender-based violence is often neglected in humanitarian programming, in spite
of being one of the most serious protection issues facing IDPs.52 Sexual
violence against displaced women and girls remains an under-reported aspect of
conflict. In many countries, displaced women and girls do not report incidents
of abuse and violence to medical and humanitarian organisations. Nevertheless,
cases of sexual and gender-based violence were reported among IDP communities
in a number of countries, particularly in the DRC, Sudan,
Colombia, Nepal,
the Philippines, Iraq,
Chad, Uganda,
CAR, Somalia, Myanmar,
India, Liberia,
Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire
and the Russian Federation.
Rape was used as a weapon of war – to punish communities for their political
allegiances, as a form of ethnic cleansing, and to forcibly displace civilians
– in countries including Colombia, the
DRC and Sudan.
Armed groups engaged in acts of sexual violence to attack the values of the
community, punish or terrorise communities and individuals accused of
collaborating with enemy forces, or provide gratification for fighters. In the
DRC, various armed groups have abducted and kept as sex slaves thousands of
women to provide sexual, domestic and agricultural services.
In the DRC, Sudan and Uganda,
there were widespread reports of systematic sexual and gender-based violence
against displaced women and girls. The number of reports of incidents of rape
against internally displaced women rose sharply during 2006 in parts of the
DRC. Incidents were reported more frequently along the Kanyabayonga-Kayna road,
North Kivu province, where fighting between the army and
rebel soldiers has displaced at least 70,000 people. Some 4,000 displaced women
were reported to have been raped in South Kivu.
In Darfur, girls and women have been targeted in
inter-ethnic fighting both in a deliberate attempt to dishonour them and as a
means of ethnic cleansing, particularly in areas inhabited by displaced
populations. Many victims were under 18 years of age. In May 2006, for
instance, a group of about 25 armed men in Sudan Liberation Army uniforms
threatened, beat and robbed six separate groups of women and girls in Hajar
Jalanga, in West Darfur. During the same month,
Janjaweed militia attempted to rape women and girls displaced from villages
near Kutum, in North Darfur. And in July, approximately
25 armed militias, some in army uniforms, assaulted 20 women outside the Kalma
IDP camp in Nyala, South Darfur. Increasing numbers of
rapes by displaced men of displaced women were also reported within IDP camps
in Darfur.
In Chad,
members of armed groups, including the Janjaweed, targeted displaced women and
girls in attacks on IDP sites in the eastern part of the country. UNICEF
received reports that 33 women and girls from the Bildigue and Haraza tribes at
the Koubigou IDP site had been raped.
In Uganda in
2006, there continued to be cases of sexual exploitation and sexual violence
against women and girls by government and military personnel in IDP camps. The
issue worsened with an increase in the numbers of displaced people leaving the
camps for new settlement areas. A lack of schools and health facilities in the
new areas has meant that men are the fi rst to go, leaving women and children
behind in the existing camps, where they are able to gain access to basic
services but where they are also exposed to a greater risk of gender-based
violence, abuse and exploitation. In January 2006, a Ugandan soldier was
reported to have been responsible for the rape of a 17-year-old girl outside
Pagal camp in Gulu district, and in February 2006 a 17-year-old soldier was
arrested and charged with rape in Lira Palwo in Pader. Patterns of sexual
violence were also reported in IDP camp settings in Somalia
and Sri Lanka
during the year.
Poverty and a lack of any other income-generating activity forced many
internally displaced women into prostitution and traffi cking during 2006. In Nepal,
according to local NGOs, displaced women fleeing their homes or living in IDP
camps have sometimes been forced into prostitution to survive or have fallen
prey to traffi ckers. In IDP camps in Uganda,
many girls and women engage in “survival sex” to obtain food or “transactional
sex” in exchange for spending money or small objects. Lack of access to income
sources has forced displaced women to collect firewood in the Kieni forest
of Kenya, where if caught, they are
subjected to sexual abuse, severe beatings and imprisonment by forest guards.
Displaced women and girls are often exposed to sexual and gender-based violence
in the course of obtaining basic resources such as food, water and fuel for
themselves and their families. In Sudan,
rapes and other forms of sexual abuse were frequently reported when displaced
women and girls had to leave camp areas to gather fi rewood. In Liberia,
displaced women have been forced to exchange sex for aid, including food from
national and international peace workers, according to a report by Save the
Children.
There were also reports that displaced women and girls were subject to multiple
forms of harassment and abuse by both government forces and non-state actors in
Nepal, India
and Colombia.
In Nepal, an
inter-agency mission in the east of the country received informal reports that
displaced women were subject to harassment and abuse by both government forces
and rebels. A June 2006 study by Terre des Hommes showed that displaced girls
working in carpet factories in Nepal
were at high risk of abuse, including sexual and verbal harassment. A number of
women of the Hmar minority group, living in Manipur, North India,
were raped during attacks by militants that displaced thousands of people from
the area to the neighbouring state of Mizoram. Violence against women may also
increase within the family due to the stress of displacement. A government
survey in Colombia
showed that almost half of all displaced women there reported physical violence
at the hands of their partners in 2006.
Peacekeepers were also involved in sexual abuse against displaced women and
girls. In August in the DRC, the international media reported allegations of a
soldier-run prostitution ring involving girls as young as 15 in the South
Kivu area. Some of the implicated soldiers are believed to be
United Nations peacekeepers. Allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse
committed by UN peacekeepers in several countries were under investigation in
2006. In December, senior UN and NGO representatives issued a statement
addressing sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers, emphasising a zero
tolerance approach.
National responsibility to protect
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement explicitly call on governments
to provide protection for women and girls. Provisions regarding displaced women
and girls are guided by two core concerns: to safeguard them from
gender-specifi c violence and to uphold their rights to equal access to
services and participation in assistance programmes.
But abuses against displaced women and girls have generally been perpetrated
with impunity, and a majority of displaced women and girls did not have
adequate access to physical, legal and social protection during 2006. A number
of investigations into sexual abuse were ongoing at the international level
last year, although the process is lengthy. At the end of the year, the lead
prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said in a briefi ng to the
Security Council that it had “reasonable grounds to believe” that crimes
against humanity, including rape, had been committed in Darfur. Similar
investigations have been under way in the DRC and northern Uganda,
where there have been widespread allegations of systematic patterns of rape of
displaced and other women.
Progress was made in strengthening the legal protection afforded to displaced
women who have survived acts of sexual and gender-based violence in some
conflict-affected countries. Countries where legislation criminalising sexual
violence was adopted or amended during 2006 included Liberia
and the DRC. Liberia
passed a Rape Amendment Act, and the DRC adopted a bill on sexual and gender
violence as a result of lobbying by local NGOs and the UN. The law strengthens
the legal protection available to victims of sexual violence, broadening the
defi nition of rape to include those committed with objects, a practice that
has been common in the Congolese war.
In some countries, national laws may prevent displaced women and girls from
gaining access to assistance. In post-war Bosnia
and Herzegovina, legislation related to
civilian war victims, including victims of rape, differs between the country’s
two entities, which may create unequal access to social benefi ts or support
depending on the area of displacement or return.
Regional and international response
At the regional level, a protocol on the Prevention and Suppression of Sexual
Violence against Women and Children in the Great Lakes region of Africa was
adopted in 2006 within the framework of the International Conference on the Great
Lakes region. The protocol calls on states to take particular
measures to ensure that internally displaced women are protected. The UN and
NGOs continued to develop initiatives to address sexual and gender-based
violence in humanitarian situations during 2006, including medical and
psycho-social assistance, and legal and income-generating activities. While
advances have been made, much still has to be done to improve prevention of and
response to gender-based violence in IDP communities.
For instance, a 2006 study by the International Medical Corps on the mental
health of displaced women in South Darfur found that
almost one-third of displaced women surveyed suffered from a major depressive
disorder. Almost all the women said that counselling provided by humanitarian
agencies would help them.
At the interagency level, progress was made in the elaboration of practical
guidelines and tools to prevent and respond to gender-based violence. The
creation of a standby force of gender experts for deployment in humanitarian
emergencies was part of efforts to more effectively integrate gender issues
into the UN system. In 2006, following a comprehensive review of the extent to
which humanitarian interventions address the needs of women, girls and boys,
the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the primary mechanism for inter-agency
coordination of humanitarian assistance, identified key gaps. Based on these,
it proposed five areas for action: developing gender equality standards;
ensuring gender expertise in emergencies; building capacity of humanitarian
actors on gender issues; using sex and age disaggregated data for
decision-making; and building partnerships for increased and more predictable
gender equality programming in crises.
_____________________________________________________________________
Attached is the Report of the UN Secretary-General's
Representative
on Internally Displaced Persons, to
the UN 2009.
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UNITED NATIONS
Press
Release
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UN
EXPERT SAYS WORLD IS NEGLECTING MAJOR INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT CRISES
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13
March 2009
The United Nations independent expert on internally
displaced people, Walter Kalin, called Friday for more attention to be paid
to some of the world's most serious displacement crises, including those
caused by natural disasters and by the conflicts in Somalia, Sri Lanka and
Sudan.
"More than 26 million people in the world are
displaced due to conflicts and violence," Mr. Kalin said. "There is
an urgent need for the international community to pay more attention to some
of the worst crisis situations."
Mr. Kalin, who is the Representative of the
Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, was
speaking shortly after presenting his annual report to the United Nations
Human Rights Council, which is currently in session in Geneva.
He cited a number of the worst-affected countries,
including Somalia: "More than 1.3 million internally displaced Somalis
are struggling to survive in a void created by the absence of functioning
State authorities that could protect them, and many find themselves in a
life-threatening situation due to lack of water, food and medical
assistance", he said.
Mr. Kalin reminded States and armed groups to respect
their obligations under human rights law and international humanitarian law,
including the obligation not to arbitrarily prevent international
humanitarian assistance from being delivered to those in need.
"4.7 million people, including 2.7 million internally
displaced persons, are affected by the conflict in the Darfur region and rely
on humanitarian assistance. I am very concerned about the Government of
Sudan's recent decision to expel 13 major international humanitarian
organizations and revoke the licences of three national non-governmental
organisations." Without some of the major providers of humanitarian aid,
Mr. Kalin feared the Sudanese Government would be unable to provide enough
food, drinking water or basic healthcare for an extremely vulnerable
population: "We could see a humanitarian catastrophe in the region. As a
consequence of the Government's action, the rights of large numbers of
internally displaced persons to life, food, water and the highest attainable
standard of health may be gravely affected", he said.
On the conflict in Sri Lanka, Mr. Kalin called upon both
parties to do their utmost to prevent civilian casualties and to allow for
the safe evacuation of those trapped in the conflict zone. Mr. Kalin
expressed grave concern at reports that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) are preventing civilians from fleeing the conflict zone and may be
holding civilians as human shields. Mr. Kalin also urged the Sri Lankan
Government to provide all internally displaced persons escaping hostilities
with all necessary protection and assistance. He recalled that internally
displaced persons, as citizens, retain their right to freedom of movement and
must not be confined to camps. While security screenings may be conducted
upon arrival, they should be concluded promptly and individuals retained only
in accord with judicial process and on the basis of individualized suspicion.
Mr. Kalin also expressed concern about internal
displacement resulting from natural disasters: "Climate change is
expected to increase the frequency and magnitude of natural disasters. This
will also lead to more displacement". "Governments have to make a
greater effort to prepare for natural disasters, and in particular to protect
disaster-affected populations, including the displaced," he added.
Mr. Kalin, professor of law at the University of Bern
(Switzerland), has been the Representative of the Secretary General on the
Human Rights of Internally Displaced People since 2004.
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