WUNRN
For FULL REPORT, 27 pages, 2013, go
to website link http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session24/Pages/ListReports.aspx
and scroll down to A/67/931 and click UN
language translation of choice.
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SYRIA - UN EXPERT REPORT ON
INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS - WOMEN & GIRLS
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United Nations A/67/931- General Assembly - 2013
Report
of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons
Situation of Internally Displaced Persons
in the Syrian Arab Republic
Summary
The present report provides an overview of
the serious humanitarian, protection and human rights situation of internally
displaced persons in the Syrian Arab Republic, and an analysis of the
continuing challenges in meeting the urgent needs of affected communities. It
also outlines a number of key considerations to guide the development of
strategies for future durable solutions, and a set of preliminary
recommendations.
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C. WOMEN AND GIRLS
60. United Nations monitors have received
credible allegations of sexual violence against women and girls being committed
during raids, assaults, in detention facilities, at checkpoints, in areas
perceived as sympathetic to the opposing side and possibly also during house
searches.
61. While fear of sexual violence has been
identified as a trigger for displacement, women and girls are also at risk of
sexual violence during flight and in the displacement phase, owing to family
separation, lack of basic structural and social protections, and limited safe
access to services. Risk of sexual violence also increases with the
proliferation of small arms and the growing number of armed groups often
operating under unclear command structure. Access to services for sexual and
gender-based violence survivors is limited by security constraints,
availability, distance and restrictions that families impose on the freedom of
movement of women and girls. Survivors are also reluctant to report sexual and
gender-based violence owing to fear of stigma, social exclusion, honour
killings or reprisals.
62. The social and economic impact of the
conflict on women and girls, including those internally displaced, has placed
them at increased risk of abuse, adoption of harmful coping mechanisms and
exploitation owing to pressure to find work in the informal sector. While early
and forced marriage of girls existed in some Syrian communities before the war,
the practice is now used by some families, including in internally displaced
person communities, to better “protect” girls in the absence of male family
members and lessen the financial pressure on families. Intimate partner
violence is also believed to have increased from pre-war levels, and to increasingly
affect women and girls as a result of displacement and conflict-related
distress.