Refugees International: Articles: 16 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence: Rape & Sexual Violence

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16 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence: Rape & Sexual Violence

Liberia 2005: Woman by MSF sign
11/25/2006

Refugees International joins the 16 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence to focus attention on how the effects of displacement are experienced differently by men and women. RI is dedicated to building greater awareness of GBV and incorporates a gender analysis of the situation of all displaced people and peacekeepers.

RAPE & SEXUAL VIOLENCE

Sexual violence refers to rape and attempted rape, sexual harassment, harmful traditional practices including female genital mutilation, forced prostitution, sexual abuse and exploitation, including forced marriage and childbearing.

Rape and other forms of sexual violence affect women, children and men. Refugees and internally displaced women and children are at greater risk when separated from male or adult family members who provide them with some form of protection. Women are also targeted for sexual violence as a weapon of war. Sexual violence is often used in order to destroy community pride and unity, to inflict terror upon the population at large, or as in Darfur, Sudan, to carry out a strategy of ethnic cleansing. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, rape and sexual violence against women are becoming endemic. Displaced people are frequently made more vulnerable to sexual violence due to geographic location, design, and social structure of a camp, the availability of food and fuel, the hostility of local populations and the presence of corrupt police and security forces around a camp.

Displaced women are often unable to access humanitarian assistance and healthcare. Survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence must be given the opportunity to heal both mentally and physically. Survivors may be isolated by their families and left to take care of themselves and/or their children. RI advocates for greater protection for vulnerable people and for support services.

Introduction	Domestic Violence	Rape & Sexual Violence
Reproductive Health & HIV/AIDS	Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration & Repatriation (DDRR)	Human Trafficking
Child Soldiers	Sexual Exploitation & Peacekeeping	Additional Resources