NGO’s Assistance towards refugees, victims of sexuality & gender-based violence

During any armed conflict the society transitions from a peaceful way of living into a conflictive phase where all social structures are disturbed and the system is broken. According to the United Nations “armed conflicts are political conflicts involving citizens for internal change” meaning that the society is not only going to be lacking a system and a political and social structure but the citizens are going to become targets in order to coerce the government, which will notably decrease the security. This conflictive phase if not resolved in time will weaken the community, where the weakest are going to be subjected to violence more than others, the weakest group of people in this case would be illegal immigrants, refugees, women and children. The state should protect such groups that are more likely to become targets, but in a weak society where the system has been broken this is least like to happen. Yet, there are Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), international Agencies and Agencies part of the International System willing to provide assistance to these and preventive operations for such violence to happen. It is fair to say that these organization have the best intentions towards victims of Sexuality and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), thus I believe they are quite important factor in weak communities. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify three agencies that do such work, while comparing and contrasting each mission with a case study, keeping in mind the protocol they need to follow and their actions in order to prevent such violence to happen. In order to do so, as already mentioned I will identify three agencies and one case study for each agencies to compare and contrast each situation, and recognize each organization’s work in order to understand their place in weak communities where the risk of SGBV is higher.

As already mentioned, conflicts are one of the main reasons of weak communities, they can be triggered by issues including identity, religion, ethnicity or even social class gaps. According to the organization Amnesty International “Women and children are disproportionately affected by armed conflict - they make up 80% of all refugees and displaced people. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are routinely committed during conflict.” But not only that, this is also an opportunity for insurgent groups to recruit new members, which are most likely to be children who have recently lost their family due to the armed conflict. Therefore it is a crucial situation that needs any form of intervention, which these agencies provide, but they cannot just go to a highly danger zone and provide help to the victims of insurgent groups willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want, therefore they need to follow a protocol, which are basically guidelines each person needs to follow for their security, coordination and in order to achieve best results. For this reason it is important to understand what these organizations’ mission really is and how they perform in such areas.

In order to best understand these guidelines I will analyze the General Handbook for Coordinating Gender-Base Violence Intervention in Humanitarian Settings which are general guidelines the most important organizations follow, this handbook was reviewed and developed by the European Commission of humanitarian Aid, the Australian Government, United Nations, International Medical Corps and the International Rescue Committee. This handbook is divided in six sections, the first sections provides an overview of GBV in humanitarian crisis which helps understand key definitions, principles etc. The second section describes the Who of coordination which describes the responsibilities at a global and field level. The third section describes what of coordination which describes key responsibilities of functions and coordination mechanisms.

The first thing each mission needs to acquire is the stage of the crisis and how each phase of a crisis overlaps, this is important in order to know how dangerous a mission is and consider the preparedness planning for next phases. Each crisis has four phases; the Pre-Crisis, the peak of the Crisis, Stabilization time and Return Recovery Post-Crisis phase. The fourth section illustrates the when and how of coordination by reviewing the key steps to be undertaken when implementing and maintaining a coordination mechanism. The fifth section provides practical coordination skills for GBV coordinators and the last section are annexes. For the purpose of this paper I will only take deeper look into the basics, responsibilities and approaches. The second protocol that I will analyze is the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and internally Displaced Persons developed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which basically is a handbook with guidelines for prevention and response, which is important to see the preventive responses from these organizations. The types of assistance vary from provision of shelter to the implementation of regulations and positive practices, including post-trauma assistance. Each agency has its own field of expertise, but all of them use the research and data collection for the implementation of policies and regulations at national and international levels. All the programmes conduct preventive programmes, assistance programmes and post-conflict trauma assistance.

The first case Study is by UNHCR – The United Nations Refugee Agency – Safe Haven: Sheltering Displaced persons from Sexual and Gender Based Violence, written by Rebecca Horn. In the first eight months of 2012, the Dadaab refugee camp complex at the Kenya-Somalia border registered over 630,000 refugees and asylum seekers. This big number of people not only means overpopulation inside the camp but it also presents serious security and protection concerns, in fact there have been numerous report cases of aggression, including rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence. During the two months of inter-ethnic conflict that occurred after the presidential elections, over 1000 cases of sexual and gender based violence were reported. “Today, many Kenyans remain displaced, with entire camp communities still clustered in central and western Kenya. Security and service delivery to the camps is low. Rates of sexual and gender-based violence are difficult to assess, but assumed to be largely underreported.” UNHCR states on their report.

UNHCR mission and objectives for this particular case study were issued in order to facilitate access to critical services in constrained displacement settings. Their aim is to explore, generate and improve the data and understanding of the options for immediate, temporary shelter for refugees, displaced persons, and other migrants fleeing sexual and gender-based violence in countries affected by conflict or natural disaster. In order to provide evidence to inform donors, policy makers and other local and international actors. UNHCR found that there was lacking big amounts of information on the magnitude of physical and sexual violence in Kenya, presumably due to underreporting. According to the Lutheran World Federation Gender Unit, 530 incidents of sexual and gender-based violence were reported in 2011 (469 against females, 61 against males). Also recent data from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey indicate that 39 percent of women it interviewed had experienced physical violence. More than one in five Kenyan women reported having experienced sexual violence, with perpetrators usually known to the victims. The most common abusers noted were: current husbands or partners, current or former boyfriends, and former husbands or partners. Very little information is available on sexual violence against men and boys, since there seems to be even more shame and stigma associated with homosexual rape than with sexual violence against women and girls. UNHCR along with the Department of Refugee affairs (DRA) are responsible of the management of the refugees’ camps, while DRA registers refugees, UNHCR coordinates protection services. UNHCR also provides emergency shelters to refugees fleeing sexual and gender-based violence and find permanent places for them to stay. There are several shelter models, each one of them is categorized according to the necessities and security of refugees, each contains a church and a primary school. This shelters’ organization, management and funding is all done by UNHCR.

Since the beginning of the Iraq-Syrian war, over four million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries, over 628,000 Syrians and 47,000 Iraqis fled to Jordan seeking for asylum. Numerous assessments have been conducted to better understand the challenges that Syrian women, girls, boys and men face regarding SGBV in Jordan. Task Force that identifies among others the following forms of SGBV: domestic violence, early marriage, and sexual violence. A prominent concern expressed by Syrian adolescent boys and girls is physical and psychological violence committed by family members. Many of these victims are afraid to speak due to many of the marauders are members of their family or community. 50.7 % of victims are abused by spouses and close family members “Syrian women have reported that their husbands have to cope with intense stress due to the lack of livelihood opportunities and that this may increase physical and psychological violence against them and against the children.” Another big factor seems to be early and force marriage which is culturally accepted in Jordan and many parents believe that a marriage it is a way to secure their children’s future. In 2014 “SGBV has noted a sharp increase in early marriages of Syrians in Jordan.” 13% of all registered marriages in Jordan involved girls younger than 18 years old.

UNFPA’s mission is to re-establish the Syrian refugees into society, while they provide them with preventive assistance, current protection and other services these victims might need. UNFPA has developed a work plan for awareness, prevention and preparation assessments. This includes training on specialized areas as well as providing physical and mental repair projects, within those refugees can attend to Yoga classes, personal defense classes. UNFPA has launched several campaigns providing recreational activities to women men and children inside refugee camps but one of them has made a difference in the daily living, a campaign in 2014 at a community level, which included awareness-raising sessions, social and recreational activities for women, girls, men and boys and other prevention activities. These campaigns are very important because they unite the people inside the complex and actually creates a community, a participant in a study in the Zaatari complex discussed that “In Syria, everyone knew each other and would look after each other. Here we are surrounded by people from different towns. If something happened to my neighbor, I wouldn’t care about them” therefore it is crucial to create unity amongst people inside camps and a way to do so is by recreational activities. UNFPA also provides multi-sectoral assistance having established women and girls’ safe spaces, where each case management and other services such as psychosocial support, legal aid and health care are available.

The third case study is a more generalized study, but it surely it is important due to its immense magnitude. The subjected countries where; Burundi, Ethiopia, Jordan and the Northern Caucasus in the Russian Federation. Where there is approximately 7.6 million refugees with disabilities living in situations of forced displacement. Under these circumstances SGBV “particularly sexual violence and exploitation, often escalates as social, community and state protection mechanisms are weakened” according to the report I see that It is Possible, Building Capacity for Disability Inclusion in Gender-Based Violence Programming in Humanitarian Settings carried out by the Women’s Refugee Commission. The funding have shown that the rates of violence is remarkably higher among refugees with disabilities. In fact, there are reports of women with disabilities being subjected to sexual violence on a regular basis and by multiple perpetrators. WRC proposed that one of the many reasons of why this is a rising issue is due to the lack of information about GBV among communities, lack of awareness and the lack of a protective system inside the camps. As mentioned before, the perpetrators go after the weakest group of people in the community where the system has broken down, and WRC explains the correlation between gender, disability and displacement and how that reduces the “power and status in relationships, households and communities.” For many of people it is socially accepted to have gender preference and therefore gender inequality, there is a structural inequity which is accepted by the community. The fact that they are being displaced marks them as more vulnerable, insecure, and scared, their whole environment changes and there is no security. And lastly because they have disabilities, which creates a social exclusion and negligence. All these factors together have clearly demonstrated an increased number of victims of GBV.

Due to the mental and physical disability of many of the refugees it is absolutely necessary to have customized guidelines in order to have a better approach and more satisfactory results. The first aim is to identify the gaps and opportunities for refugees with disabilities to be part of a humanitarian program. Second, evaluate actions and promote their establishment in refugee camps, and lastly perform their strategies, tools and resources. This strategy needs to be implemented in three phases; the first phase which includes the assessments and program coordination. The second phase is the implementation of the activities and the last phase involves positive practices in order to improve the living inside the community.

The result of armed conflict weakens the community and breaks the system and social structure. This forces the displacement of refugees among communities around the world which has increased numerably these past few years. There are numerous cases of Sexuality and Gender-Based Violence which happens very frequently to the weakest group of people in the community, which in most cases are women, children and people with disabilities. These three subjected agencies have implemented various programmes for the prevention, protection and assistance to victims of GBV which are actually extremely necessary in weak communities and refugee camps, the sole presence of this agencies present a little hope to these victims. All types of assistance these agencies provide are not only necessary for the daily living but for future years when they are re-established in a society. These organizations try the best to gather information about every possible issue for policy makers and the international system to formulate regulations in order to provide better lives for these people who are facing numerous challenges on a daily basis.