ending violence Against women and girls
In the breakdown of social and moral order that accompanies armed conflict, displaced women and girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence (often referred to as gender-based violence or GBV). Perpetrators may include others who have been displaced by conflict or disaster, members of other clans, villages, religious groups or ethnic groups, military personnel or rebel forces. They may also be humanitarian workers from UN agencies or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), members of the host population or family members.
Violence against women and girls increases during war
The nature of warfare is changing: Sexual violence and torture of civilian women and girls during periods of armed conflict is a growing phenomenon. For instance, due to systematic and exceptionally violent gang rape, doctors in the Democratic Republic of Congo now classify vaginal destruction as a war crime. Thousands of Congolese girls and women suffer from vaginal fistula—tissue tears in the vagina, bladder and rectum—after surviving brutal rapes in which guns, branches and broken bottles were used to violate them. A survey of rape survivors in South Kivu region revealed that 91 percent suffered from one or several rape-related illnesses. Employing rape as a weapon of war, the Burmese government has tried to violently suppress a local rebellion in the Shan state since the mid-90s. And displaced Sudanese women and men continue to report abduction and widespread rape of women and girls in Darfur, Sudan.
Gender-based violence defined
Gender-based violence is any harm enacted against a person's will that is the result of power imbalances that exploit distinctions between males and females. Violence may be physical, sexual, psychological, economic or socio-cultural, perpetrated in private or in public settings. Although not exclusive to women and girls, GBV principally affects them across all cultures. GBV can occur throughout a woman's lifecycle, from early childhood marriage and genital mutilation, to sexual abuse, domestic violence, legal discrimination and exploitation.
Other forms of GBV that occur during conflict and its aftermath include: Sexual abuse and exploitation; domestic violence; trafficking; forced impregnation or sterilization; forced marriage; forced prostitution; forced recruitment; and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation or early marriage.
Learn more
Read about how the Women's Commission is working to reduce displaced women's and girls' vulnerability to GBV through:
- Beyond Firewood - Risking rape to collect fuel for cooking
- Key gender-based violence messages/Facts and Stats
Read about the Women's Commission's 2008 Voices of Courage Awards winners, who are leaders in their communities' efforts to end violence against women.