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16 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence: Reproductive Health & HIV/AIDS
11/25/2006
Â
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.Â
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH & HIV/AIDS
Gender-based violence for women follows
a life cycle pattern that begins during the prenatal stage, where women
and girls endure battery during pregnancy, pregnancy due to rape, and
coerced pregnancy to name just a few.
In infancy, the most common problems are physical and sexual abuse, and differential access to food and medical care. Sexual abuse, harmful traditional practices (female genital mutilation), sexual exploitation, forced marriage, differential access to education, food, and medical care also occur during childhood. Adolescents and women of reproductive age see a continuation of sexual violence through rape, prostitution and sex trafficking and psychological abuse from marital partners. Some young women who have fled their countries to escape forced female genital mutilation have applied for asylum and have been granted refugee status in countries such as the United States, Canada, and Sweden.
Reproductive health care is a serious concern in the lives of displaced and stateless people throughout the world. Displaced women and children are at a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as HIV/AIDS, which spread more quickly in situations of poverty, powerlessness, and social instability. Rape and sexual exploitation can also make women and girls more vulnerable to HIV infection. Lack of quality reproductive health services in camps for displaced persons can contribute to obstetric problems, high death rate and permanent health damage from treatable illnesses and disease. In camps with adequate reproductive health care programs, studies have shown that refugees actually are less at risk for HIV than the host populations around them that do not have access to services. However, without equal access to education, economic opportunity, and medical services and protection from sexual violence, rape, and sex trafficking, poor and displaced women and girls will continue to be the highest growing victims of HIV/AIDS.Â
In infancy, the most common problems are physical and sexual abuse, and differential access to food and medical care. Sexual abuse, harmful traditional practices (female genital mutilation), sexual exploitation, forced marriage, differential access to education, food, and medical care also occur during childhood. Adolescents and women of reproductive age see a continuation of sexual violence through rape, prostitution and sex trafficking and psychological abuse from marital partners. Some young women who have fled their countries to escape forced female genital mutilation have applied for asylum and have been granted refugee status in countries such as the United States, Canada, and Sweden.
Reproductive health care is a serious concern in the lives of displaced and stateless people throughout the world. Displaced women and children are at a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as HIV/AIDS, which spread more quickly in situations of poverty, powerlessness, and social instability. Rape and sexual exploitation can also make women and girls more vulnerable to HIV infection. Lack of quality reproductive health services in camps for displaced persons can contribute to obstetric problems, high death rate and permanent health damage from treatable illnesses and disease. In camps with adequate reproductive health care programs, studies have shown that refugees actually are less at risk for HIV than the host populations around them that do not have access to services. However, without equal access to education, economic opportunity, and medical services and protection from sexual violence, rape, and sex trafficking, poor and displaced women and girls will continue to be the highest growing victims of HIV/AIDS.Â
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 Child Soldiers |
 Sexual Exploitation & Peacekeeping |
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