WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

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.

___________________________________________________________

http://www.unfpa.org/emergencies/violence.htm

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.