Sexual And Gender-based Violence Research Articles

Survey of violence against women at a refugee settlement in Uganda

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) can have long-term repercussions on the mental and physical health of survivors. The threat of SGBV increases for women and girls in times of crisis and is on the rise in humanitarian emergencies. For example, women in refugee camps are at risk of SGBV. Associate Professor Tamaki Hatano is working to promote awareness of this situation and help establish a future where SGBV is eradicated. In her work, she conducts interviews with female refugees in order to hear their stories and learn of their experiences. At present, Hatano is studying the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Uganda. Although her work has been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2015 and 2016 she visited the Settlement and interviewed 30 women. In doing so, she found that SGBV, including rape and violence in the form of theft and threats, is pervasive. This work also highlighted the impact of SGBV on physical and psychological health and how it can alter life paths. This work confirmed to Hatano that there is a need for improved systems in place, including the establishment of a culture in which women feel safe reporting SGBV and also feel assured that their experiences will be taken seriously and that they will be protected. In enhancing awareness and understanding of SGBV, Hatano envisions a future where it is eradicated.

‘Thursdays in Black campaign’ and the blackening of the widow’s body: A hermeneutic of suspicion to blackening of the body to resist gender-based violence

Black is used as a colour of darkness, death, evil, bad luck and mourning. Generally, most cultures around the world use black as a colour of mourning, and widows from the African culture, in particular, are expected to wear all-black attire for a year to mourn their husbands. Although this colour is associated with death and mourning, contemporary women’s movements have reintroduced black as a colour of resistance and resilience. This article applies African feminist critical hermeneutics of suspicion to the Thursdays in Black (TIB) campaign and blackening of the widow’s body and attire. The aim is to explore how this campaign is contrary to the blackening of the widow’s body and attire in their cause and how the campaign’s wearing of black is emotionally divorced from the struggles of widows who experience distress, sadness and shame by wearing the black attire.Contribution: The article applies an African feminist hermeneutics of suspicion to the colour black used by the TIB campaign for solidarity with victims of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). It questions the relevance of this campaign to a widow who puts on a black attire for mourning.

Bringing inside out: humour, outreach, and sexual and gender-based violence in Sierra Leone

This article explores the theoretical and practical role(s) of humour in facilitating outreach about sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Sierra Leone. While humour might be considered an insensitive way of approaching difficult issues, this project shows that incongruity can in fact be productive. Recognizing that humour itself can be a form of symbolic or physical violence in some contexts, we argue that humour is a means of opening up conversations about violence (in this case SGBV) in order to address the social and legal challenges associated with it. Our pilot project – devised by an interdisciplinary team and conducted in partnership with a Sierra Leonean access-to-justice NGO, Timap for Justice – used comedy and performance to meet two key challenges: to disseminate awareness about social and legal issues related to commonplace practices of SGBV, and to open up a broader discussion about experiences of SGBV. Using empirical evidence from focus groups and interviews, this article shows how a humorous approach proved to be a productive mode of engagement and examines key concepts including ‘the vicinity of laughter’ (involving the spatial and interpersonal aspects of humour), the connections between laughter and memory, and the paradoxical relationship between lived experience, humour and violence.

Narrative Imagination and Social Change: Instructors in Agricultural Colleges in Ethiopia Address Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the world, making female students particularly vulnerable in its post-secondary institutions. Although there is extensive literature that describes the problem, mainly from the students' perspectives, what remains understudied is the role of instructors, their perception of the current issues, and what they imagine they can do to address campus-based SGBV, particularly in rural settings. In this study, we used the concept of narrative imagination to work with instructors in four Ethiopian agricultural colleges to explore how they understand the SGBV issues at their colleges and what they imagine their own role could include in efforts to combat these problems. Using qualitative narrative-based methods such as interviews and an interactive storyline development workshop, as well as cellphilming (cellphone + film) as a participatory visual method, the data were collected across several fieldwork phases. We consider how we might broaden this framework of narrative imagination to include the notion of art for social change.

Role of Climate Change in Exacerbating Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Women: A New Challenge for International Law

The advent of climate change era has been affirmed by various global processes including 21 May 2019 recognition by the Anthropocene Working Group of ‘human impact’ in bringing profound alterations on planet earth. It has emerged as the predominant ‘world problematique’. Though entire populations are affected by climate change, women and girls suffer the most. Due to their traditional roles, women are heavily dependent on natural resources. As already seen, as a consequence of natural disasters and during Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21, women have faced heightened real-life challenges specially being vulnerable to different forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). They suffer from a lack of protection, privacy, and mental trauma. Women are exposed to SGBV due to weak or absence of social, economic, political security and the culture of widespread impunity to the perpetrators. There is double victimization of women both as human beings and because of their gender. Effect of SGBV is highly injurious and perpetual. A close study of four main areas of international law does not yield any international legal instrument that deals with SGBV against women during and after the climate change induced disasters. This is more ominous when growing evidence suggests role of climate change in exacerbation of SGBV against women and girls. Even texts of the three specific climate change treaties (1992 UNFCCC, 1997 Kyoto Protocol and 2015 Paris Agreement) do not address this issue. It has been given attention only through the decisions of the Conference of the Parties in recent years. Due to serious psychological and bodily harm SGBV causes to women, it needs to be explicitly factored in respective international legal instruments on climate change and disasters. Amidst ignorance, denials and lack of adequate attention as regards impact of climate change in exacerbating SGBV against women and girls from the scholars and decision-makers in the field, this study makes a modest effort to deduce and analyze – from scattered initiatives, scholarly literature in different areas, existing international legal instruments and intergovernmental processes – the growing causal relationship between climate change and SGBV against women and girls so as to suggest a way out for our better common future. It is a new challenge for international law that needs to be duly addressed in a timely manner.

Compliance with regional commitments on sexual and gender based violence in Uganda: Promoting external visibility to achieve internal viability

This paper examines Uganda‘s compliance with commitments of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) on Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). The findings show that Uganda has partially complied with these commitments mainly by incorporating them into national laws and policies. Compliance is primarily motivated by domestic factors. Firstly, it aims at addressing a real need given that SGBV is a pervasive phenomenon in this country. Secondly, and in accordance with international relations perspective, this compliance, though partial, advances additional agendas, namely (1) promoting the country‘s positive image while diverting international and regional attention from internal governance deficits including controversial presidential elections of 2011 and 2016, (2) responding to advocacy pressure from women-led organisations‘ and (3) achieving political correctness in the eyes of national and international partners.

PROTOCOL: The use of information and communications technologies (ICT) for contributing to the prevention of, and response to, sexual and gender-based violence against women and children in lower- and middle-income countries: an evidence and gap map.

This is the protocol for the development of a Campbell Collaboration evidence and gaps map (EGM). The primary objective of this evidence and gap map (EGM) is to answer the following question: (1) What is the evidence connected with the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) for preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against women and children in lower- and middle-income countries (LMIC)? (a) the EGM will provide a structured and accessible contextual framework for research to stakeholders and policymakers in SGBV and ICT; (b) the EGM will identify gaps in the available ICT and SGBV evidence; (c) the EGM will identify clusters of evidence suitable for systematic review; and (d) the EGM will look for and build connections between related areas of research in ICT and SGBV. As part of identifying the evidence connected with the use of ICT for preventing and responding to SGBV we seek to answer the following questions based upon the available evidence: (a)Does the use of ICT prevent SGBV against women and children in LMIC?(b)How effective is ICT at improving access to quality services for SGBV survivors in LMIC?(c)Does the use of ICT contribute to effectively achieving intermediate outcomes that lead to the prevention of SGBV against women and children, and/or improving access for SGBV survivors to response services in LMIC?(d)What are the enabling factors associated with the implementation of ICT and SGBV interventions?

Sexual and gender-based violence in migration context: Needs, gaps and good practices

The first goal of the present work was to identity needs and gaps in interventions for migrant and refugee victims of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Spain. The second goal was to develop a guide for itineraries, resources and good practices to address the gaps detected. To produce data pertaining to the first purpose, we used a qualitative approach and focus groups (FGs) with institutional operators and representatives of the Third Sector. In total, six FGs were conducted with 35 key informants. The results of the study showed that existing services and resources are, in general, sufficient to cover the needs of the target group. However, some issues, such as excessive bureaucracy, re-victimization, difficulties regarding legal regularization, cultural barriers and the scant presence of cultural mediators were revealed. Regarding the second goal, a guide was created on the legal framework, itineraries and resources for migrant and refugee victims of SGBV, to ensure good practices and incorporate cultural mediation as an essential element to guarantee optimal use of services.

Exploring resource scarcity and contextual influences on wellbeing among young refugees in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, Uganda: findings from a qualitative study

BackgroundContextual factors including poverty and inequitable gender norms harm refugee adolescent and youths’ wellbeing. Our study focused on Bidi Bidi refugee settlement that hosts more than 230,000 of Uganda’s 1.4 million refugees. We explored contextual factors associated with wellbeing among refugee adolescents and youth aged 16–24 in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement.MethodsWe conducted 6 focus groups (n = 3: women, n = 3: men) and 10 individual interviews with young refugees aged 16–24 living in Bidi Bidi. We used physical distancing practices in a private outdoor space. Focus groups and individual interviews explored socio-environmental factors associated with refugee youth wellbeing. Focus groups were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded by two investigators using thematic analysis. Analysis was informed by a social contextual theoretical approach that considers the interplay between material (resource access), symbolic (cultural norms and values), and relational (social relationships) contextual factors that can enable or constrain health promotion.ResultsParticipants included 58 youth (29 men; 29 women), mean age was 20.9 (range 16–24). Most participants (82.8%, n = 48) were from South Sudan and the remaining from the Democratic Republic of Congo (17.2% [n = 10]). Participant narratives revealed the complex interrelationships between material, symbolic and relational contexts that shaped wellbeing. Resource constraints of poverty, food insecurity, and unemployment (material contexts) produced stress and increased sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) targeting adolescent girls and women. These economic insecurities exacerbated inequitable gender norms (symbolic contexts) to increase early marriage and transactional sex (relational context) among adolescent girls and young women. Gendered tasks such as collecting water and firewood also increased SGBV exposure among girls and young women, and this was exacerbated by deforestation. Participants reported negative community impacts (relational context) of COVID-19 that were associated with fear and panic, alongside increased social isolation due to business, school and church closures.ConclusionsResource scarcity produced pervasive stressors among refugee adolescents and youth. Findings signal the importance of gender transformative approaches to SGBV prevention that integrate attention to resource scarcity. These may be particularly relevant in the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings signal the importance of developing health enabling social contexts with and for refugee adolescents and youth.

The potential role of network-oriented interventions for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence among asylum seekers in Belgium

BackgroundSocial support and social network members have been identified as an important factor in mitigating the effects of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and improving the coping process for many survivors. Network oriented strategies have been advocated for among domestic violence survivors, as they help build on improving social support and addressing factors that alleviate repeat victimization. There are opportunities to implement such strategies among asylum seekers who are survivors of SGBV in asylum centres, however, this has not been fully explored. This study sought to identify key strategies and opportunities for developing peer-led and network-oriented strategies for mitigating the effects of SGBV among asylum seekers at these centres.MethodsTwenty-seven interviews, were conducted with service providers (n = 14) / asylum seekers (n = 13) at three asylum centres in Belgium. A theoretical model developed by the research team from a literature review and discussions with experts and stakeholders, was used as a theoretical framework to analyse the data. An abduction approach with qualitative content analysis was used by the two researchers to analyse the data. Data triangulation was done with findings from observations at these centres over a period of a year.ResultsMany of the asylum seekers presented with PTSD or psychosomatic symptoms, because of different forms of SGBV, including intimate partner violence, or other trauma experienced during migration. Peer and family support were very influential in mitigating the effects and social costs of violence among the asylum seekers by providing emotional and material support. Social assistants were viewed as an information resource that was essential for most of the asylum seekers. Peer-peer support was identified as a potential tool for mitigating the effects of SGBV.ConclusionInterventions involving asylum seekers and members of their network (especially peers), have the potential for improving physical and mental health outcomes of asylum seekers who are SGBV survivors.

#MeToo Activism in Namibia: Sex-Positive Feminism and State Cooperation in the Fight to Stop Rape

#MeToo Activism in Namibia:Sex-Positive Feminism and State Cooperation in the Fight to Stop Rape Ashley Currier (bio), Erin Winchester (bio), and Emily Chien (bio) #MeToo organizing has captivated the imagination of social-media-savvy feminist, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ), and sex worker rights activists who have mobilized against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) throughout southern Africa (Ajayi 2018). In Namibia, the words "Me Too" have become much more than a hashtag on social media. They name a coalition that has formed to offer support to SGBV survivors, provide a platform for survivors to share their stories, and advocate for sex positivity. Unlike other national manifestations of #MeToo organizing (Fileborn and Loney-Howes 2019; Gieseler 2019), #MeTooNamibia organizing emerged from sex-positive protests of SGBV experienced by cisgender women and girls, LGBTQ people, and sex workers. This essay explores the genealogy of Namibian sex-positive feminist organizing that culminated in the #MeTooNamibia coalition. To explore the dimensions of anti-SGBV and #MeToo organizing, we draw on analyses of Namibian newspaper reports about anti-SGBV organizing and more than forty interviews that the first author conducted with Namibian feminist, LGBTQ, prisoner's rights, and sex worker rights activists in 2019. We consider productive disruptions that #MeToo organizing against SGBV offer for Namibian feminist antirape organizing. By "productive disruptions," we mean the unsettling of anti-SGBV feminist activist spaces, strategies, and tactics in ways that cultivate new feminist activist constituencies and cooperation with different social actors. Inderpal Grewal and Srila Roy highlight how, as an issue, sexual violence is politically "productive" in that it affects so many people and saturates so many social institutions that the potential for feminist resistance continues to multiply (2017, 256). Following Roy and Grewal, we treat innovative, feminist antirape tactics as disruptions that are similarly productive. Productive disruptions include harnessing sex-positive messages to challenge [End Page 271] structures and practices that reproduce sexual violence, mobilizing feminist, queer, and sex worker rights activists through online tactics, and collaborating with political leaders, such as First Lady of Namibia Monica Geingos. We argue that productive disruptions motivate the #MeToo movement in Namibia through advances in sex-positive feminist organizing against SGBV and cooperation with state leaders (Roy 2017; Tripp 2001). Antirape Organizing in Namibia Much feminist organizing in Namibia has remained autonomous from the state, allowing activists to maintain an "'outside' position" from which they can critique state actors' stances, inaction, or campaigns (Beckwith 2000, 442). Predating Namibia's independence from South African rule, which occurred in 1990, early antirape organizing diagnosed and criticized racial disparities in the state's handling of rape cases. Feminist activists launched Rape Crisis Namibia in 1989, after Rape Crisis, a South African feminist antirape organization and the Legal Assistance Centre in Namibia, hosted a workshop in Namibia about organizing against sexual violence (Namises and Feris 2016). Louisa, a Black woman, and feminist activist in her 60s, recalled how the context of "apartheid and colonialism" legitimized the state's racialized decision to prosecute Black men for rape and not to prosecute white men for raping Black women (interview with first author, June 20, 2019, Windhoek, Namibia). According to Louisa, a catalyst for feminist antirape organizing involved the "case of a Black man who raped a white woman, and he was to go to the gallows" if convicted. Louisa stated that Rape Crisis Namibia framed "rape as an act of power [by men] over women" to subdue women. Since independence, multiple feminist nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), such as Sister Namibia and Women's Solidarity Namibia, have tackled SGBV as NGOs autonomous from the state (Britton and Shook 2014; Hubbard and Solomon 1995). Feminist antirape activists offered two reasons for the persistence of SGBV in Namibia: the fact that perpetrators of wartime rape faced no "accountability" after the end of the struggle against South African apartheid rule and backlash against women's gains in human rights, equality, and employment such that one could interpret rape as men "violently putting women back in their place" (Britton and Shook 2014, 155). Despite their autonomy from the state, feminist antirape activists in Namibia have continually turned to the state as the primary agent for redressing...

Using the ARIMA Model to forecast sexual and gender-based violence cases reported to a tertiary hospital in Lusaka, Zambia

Introduction: sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is a global public health problem and women are disproportionally affected. Sexual and gender-based violence has an acute and chronic impact on health. We set out to apply autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models to make predictions on the number of SGBV cases reported to the Women and Newborn Hospital of the University Teaching Hospitals in Lusaka, Zambia.

Sexual Gender-Based Violence in Greek Refugees Camp

In 2015 the European Migrant Crisis pushed Europe to a new dimension of issues and problems. With the mass of people migrating into the region, Greece became one of the front-line countries to face the crisis by hosting the country's high refugee population. Due to their incapability to adjust and respond according to the needs and situation of the crisis, other issues rise within Greek settlements among refugees themselves where violence came into existence. Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) appears in the refugee population that targeted women refugees living in the Greek camps. To know exactly why the causes of SGBV to happen in the first place against women refugees can be known through the effort of the Heise Model by Lori Michau to seek the root problems of the causes that drive the reason SGBV to exist within risky situations such as refugee camps. Through this Heise Model, the author seeks the causes of why SGBV happened in Greek refugee camps in 2015-2018 in covering four levels of societal, community, interpersonal, and individual.

Male and Female Perceptions and Experiences of Sexual and Gender-based Violence in South Kivu, Eastern DRC.

Conflict settings are often the context of some of the highest rates of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Although women are disproportionately the victims of SGBV, they are not the only victims. Indirect impacts of SGBV also impact men, families, and communities. Examining SGBV as only a woman's concern reinforces the hegemonic gender-binary view that SGBV somehow does not include men, who can be direct victims of SGBV, family members of female victims of SGBV, and/or perpetrators of SGBV. This qualitative study seeks to fill a gap by exploring the impact of SGBV on individuals, families, and communities, and potential options to ameliorate those issues. Data were collected in 2019 from community-based discussions in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Women described being direct victims of SGBV, as well as the burden of being at constant alert to the possible threat of violence. Men talked more about SGBV being perpetrated against women, and the indirect effect on men's perception of their social husband and/or father role to protect and provide for their family. Taken together, women and men describe three types of violence: sexual violence by an unknown assailant who is often associated the rebel groups or the military; sexual violence from a known assailant within one's community; and sexual or physical violence within intimate partnerships (i.e., intimate partner violence). Women focused more on community-based solutions to reduce their exposure to violence, while men discussed the government's responsibility to end the long-standing conflict that has severely disrupted lives. Practically, these findings support the need to specify different types of SGBV, and the opportunity to tailor interventions by type.

Intersectionality: Explaining SGBV Interlinked with Terrorism and Other International Crimes

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is often intertwined with and nested within other violations of international criminal law (ICL) as part of a broader attack against a group. However, ICL is not giving enough visibility to this nexus of crimes rooted in the intersection of identities and discrimination that underpins SGBV during conflict. Intersectionality is a concept originated in feminism and progressively recognized by international human rights law (IHRL). It posits that SGBV is caused by gender 'inextricably linked' with other identities and factors that result in compounded discrimination and unique aggravated harms. Based on case studies, this paper argues that ICL should integrate an intersectional approach based on identity and discrimination to address the nexus between SGBV and broader international crimes. Intersectionality enables a better understanding of the causes, harms, and gravity of SGBV, and it provides consistency with an IHRL interpretation. The article begins setting out the foundations of intersectionality in feminism and IHRL, and its applicability to ICL. It then applies intersectionality to two case studies that demonstrate the interlink of SGBV with broader violations of ICL: The Revolutionary United Front Case (RUF) trial judgment of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) concerning SGBV and the war crime committing acts of terrorism, and Al Hassan, prosecuted at the International Criminal Court (ICC), concerning SGBV and the crime against humanity of persecution. It concludes with final remarks on why and how ICL would benefit from integrating an intersectional approach to SGBV.

Sexual and gender-based violence and torture experiences of Sudanese refugees in Northern Uganda: health and justice responses

Purpose This British Academy/Leverhulme-funded research (Grant number: SG170394) investigated the experiences and impact of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and torture on South Sudanese refugees’ health and rights and the responses of health and justice services in Northern Uganda. Design/methodology/approach It involved thematic analysis of the narratives of 20 men and 41 women refugees’ survivors of SGBV and torture; this included their experiences in South Sudan, their journeys to Uganda and experiences in refugee settlements. In total, 37 key stakeholders including health and justice providers, police, non-government and government organisations were also interviewed regarding their experiences of providing services to refugees. Findings All refugees had survived human rights abuses carried out in South Sudan, on route to Uganda and within Uganda. Incidents of violence, SGBV, torture and other human rights abuses declined significantly for men in Uganda, but women reported SGBV incidents. The research demonstrates linkages between the physical, psychological, social/cultural and justice/human rights impact on women and men refugees, which amplified the impact of their experiences. There was limited screening, physical and psychological health and support services; including livelihoods and education. Refugees remained concerned about violence and SGBV in the refugee settlements. While they all knew of the reporting system for such incidents, they questioned the effectiveness of the process. For this reason, women opted for family reconciliation rather than reporting domestic violence or SGBV to the authorities. Men found it hard to report incidences due to high levels of stigma and shame. Research limitations/implications Refugees largely fled South Sudan to escape human rights abuses including, persecution, SGBV and torture. Their experiences resulted in physical, psychological, social-cultural and justice effects that received limited responses by health and justice services. An integrated approach to meeting refugees’ needs is required. Practical implications The authors make recommendations for integrated gender sensitive service provision for refugees including more systematic screening, assessment and treatment of SGBV and torture physical and emotional injuries combined with implementation of livelihoods and social enterprises. Social implications The research demonstrates that stigma and shame, particularly for male refugee survivors of SGBV and torture, impacts on ability to report these incidents and seek treatment. Increasing gender sensitivity of services to these issues, alongside provision of medical treatment for injuries, alongside improved informal justice processes, may assist to counteract shame and increase disclosure. Originality/value There is currently a lack of empirical investigation of this subject area, therefore this research makes a contribution to the subject of understanding refugees’ experiences of SGBV and torture, as well as their perceptions of service provision and response. This subject is strategically important due to the pressing need to develop integrated, gendered and culturally sensitive services that listen to the voices and draw on the expertise of refugees themselves while using their skills to inform improvements in service responses and policy.

Multilevel Responses to Sexual Violence in Schools in West Africa

With growing recognition of sexual and gender‑based violence (SGBV) occurring in schools, the governments of Burkina Faso and Benin, partnered with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), have attempted to implement systems of response within the school environment. This empirical study applied the socioecological framework to highlight the intersecting relationship of multiple contexts within society including the interpersonal, family, community, school, and national identities. The findings revealed inadequacies and possibilities for holistic action and accountability in both countries. Data were analysed from qualitative interviews with Beninese and Burkinabe government ministries, international and local NGOs, and community organisations. Barriers exposed complex difficulties in holding perpetrators accountable and sustainably moving towards collective action as a result of entrenched gender dynamics and social norms. However, there are pockets of action to protect victims and hold perpetrators responsible through considering communitarian ideals in addition to official policies. This study offers insight into two nations struggling to develop contextual responses of possibility.

Violence prevention in vulnerable groups: the case of children and gender-based violence

Abstract As of January 2018, nearly 50 million children had been uprooted from their homes due to violence, poverty or natural disasters. In 2016, one in four people seeking asylum in the EU are children. An analysis of nationally representative survey data on the prevalence of violence against children in 96 countries estimates that 1 billion children globally have experienced emotional, physical or sexual violence in the past year. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by nearly all states, must be fully implemented complied with. To support the implementation of the Convention, ten UN agencies incl. WHO have published the INSPIRE Handbook a technical package with seven strategies to end violence against children. Another significant public health issue that needs to be addressed is sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Evidence shows that being an irregular migrant or asylum seeker appears to make an individual more vulnerable to SGBV, including sexual assault and rape by traffickers and smugglers. Working alongside displaced communities and with different partners across multiple sectors are the strategies to reduce the risks of SGBV and to ensure support for survivors.

Sexual and reproductive health correlates of polysubstance use among female adolescents who sell sex in the southwest of China

BackgroundSubstance use and adverse sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes continue to be significant threats to female adolescents’ health and wellbeing, particularly to these marginalized subpopulations. Our research aimed to tackle knowledge gaps regarding the prevalence of concurrent substance use including alcohol, tobacco, illicit drug among Chinese adolescent female sex workers (AFSWs), while to assess the correlates between substance use and SRH risks; the needs for comprehensive SRH services were also examined in this study.MethodsA cross-sectional study enrolled 310 AFSWs aged 15–19 years by using cluster sampling method in Kunming, China. Descriptive analysis was employed to characterize the participants who were regular-alcohol users, regular-tobacco users, illicit drug users and polysubstance users. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to detect the SRH correlates of regular-alcohol use, regular-tobacco use, illicit drugs and polysubstance use respectively.ResultsThere is a high prevalence of regular-alcohol drinking (83%, 257/310) among AFSWs, with 44% (136/310) smoking cigarettes regularly and 9% using illicit drug (27/310) in the past year. In multivariate analysis, AFSWs who had middle and high school education, had higher monthly income, experienced of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) and prior abortion, and regular-tobacco smoking were associated with increased odds of regular-alcohol drinking; engaging in unprotected sex while drunk, having STIs symptoms and using illicit drugs were significantly associated with regular-tobacco smoking; while AFSWs who had an illicit drug using- intimate partner, experienced forced sexual initiation, accessed unsafe medical providers for STIs treatment were associate with increased odds of illicit drug use. Moreover, 35% (105/298) AFSWs sought unsafe medical care for STIs treatment, or no treatment at all, among them, majority were using polysubstance (87%; 91/105).ConclusionsOur findings reveal combined threats of substance use to AFSWs’ SRH and wellbeing in China, this study emphasises that the coordinated efforts are needed to integrate SRH promotion and harm reduction service across sectors, and not only fragmented measures. An effective response should include an agreed framework, indicators and targets supported by political will, solid leadership and policy reform to deal with AFSWs’ overlapping vulnerabilities in a systematic way.

Continuum of sexual and gender-based violence risks among Syrian refugee women and girls in Lebanon

BackgroundA myriad of factors including socio-economic hardships impact refugees, with females being additionally exposed to various forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). The aim of this qualitative analysis was to understand and to provide new insight into the experiences of SGBV among Syrian refugee women and girls in Lebanon.MethodsThe data are gained from a larger mixed-methods study, investigating the experiences of Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon, using an iPad and the data collection tool, SenseMaker®. The SenseMaker survey intentionally did not ask direct questions about experiences of SGBV but instead enabled stories about SGBV to become apparent from a wide range of experiences in the daily lives of Syrian girls. For this analysis, all first-person stories by female respondents about experiences of SGBV were included in a thematic analysis as well as a random selection of male respondents who provided stories about the experiences of Syrian girls in Lebanon.ResultsIn total, 70 of the 327 first person stories from female respondents and 42 of the 159 stories shared by male respondents included dialogue on SGBV. While experiences of sexual harassment were mainly reported by women and girls, male respondents were much more likely to talk explicitly about sexual exploitation. Due to different forms of SGBV risks in public, unmarried girls were at high risk of child marriage, whereas married girls more often experienced some form of IPV and/or DV. In abusive relationships, some girls and women continued to face violence as they sought divorces and attempted to flee unhealthy situations.ConclusionsThis study contributes to existing literature by examining SGBV risks and experiences for refugees integrated into their host community, and also by incorporating the perceptions of men. Our findings shed light on the importance of recognizing the impact of SGBV on the family as a whole, in addition to each of the individual members and supports considering the cycle of SGBV not only across the woman’s lifespan but also across generations. Gendered differences in how SGBV was discussed may have implications for the design of future research focused on SGBV.