scholarly journals Effectiveness of the Communities Care programme on change in social norms associated with gender-based violence (GBV) with residents in intervention compared with control districts in Mogadishu, Somalia

BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. e023819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Glass ◽  
Nancy Perrin ◽  
Mendy Marsh ◽  
Amber Clough ◽  
Amelie Desgroppes ◽  
...  

ObjectiveDetermine the effectiveness of the Communities Care programme (CCP) on change in harmful social norms associated with gender-based violence (GBV) and confidence in provision of services with residents in intervention compared with control district. We hypothesised that residents in the intervention district would report a decrease in support for harmful social norms and increase in confidence in services in comparison with control district.SettingThe study was conducted in Mogadishu, Somalia.ParticipantsIn the intervention district, 192 community members (50% women) completed baseline surveys with 163 (84.9%) retained at endline. In the control district, 195 community members (50% women) completed baseline surveys with 167 (85.6%) retained at endline.InterventionCCP uses facilitated dialogues with community members to catalyse GBV prevention actions and provides training to diverse sectors to strengthen response services for GBV survivors.ResultsResidents in the intervention district had significantly greater improvement in change in social norms: (1) response to sexual violence (b=−0.214, p=0.041); (2) protecting family honour (b=−0.558, p<0.001); and (3) husband’s right to use violence (b=−0.309, p=0.003) compared with control district participants. The greatest change was seen in the norm of ‘protecting family honour’ with a Cohen’s d effect size (ES) of 0.70, followed by the norm ‘husband’s right to use violence’ (ES=0.38), and then the norm of ‘response to sexual violence’ (ES=0.28). Residents in intervention district had a significantly greater increase in confidence in provision of GBV services across diverse sectors than the control district (b=0.318, p<0.001) with an associated effect size of 0.67. There were no significant differences between residents in intervention and control districts on change in personal beliefs on the norms.ConclusionThe evaluation showed the promise of CCP in changing harmful social norms associated with GBV and increasing confidence in provision of services in a complex humanitarian setting.

2020 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-105
Author(s):  
Amy Piedalue ◽  
Amanda Gilbertson ◽  
Kalissa Alexeyeff ◽  
Elise Klein

Changing social norms has become the preferred approach in global efforts to prevent gender-based violence (GBV). In this article, we trace the rise of social norms within GBV-related policy and practice and their transformation from social processes that exist in the world to beliefs that exist in the minds of individuals. The analytic framework that underpins social norms approaches has been subject to ongoing critical revision but continues to have significant issues in its conceptualisation of power and its sidelining of the political economy. These issues are particularly apparent in the use of individualised measures of social norms that cannot demonstrate causation, and conflation of social norms with culture. Recognising that the pressure to measure may be a key factor in reducing the complexity of the social norms approach, we call for the use of mixed methods in documenting the factors and processes that contribute to GBV and the effectiveness of interventions. As social norms approaches are increasingly prioritised over addressing the non-normative contributors to GBV (such as access to and control over productive resources), awareness of the limitations of social norms approaches is vital.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
Indira Acharya Mishra

 The article aims to analyze Parijat's Blue Mimosa, which was originally published as Śirīṣako Phūla (1965) from the feminist perspective. Feminists argue that patriarchy is unfriendly to women. They explain that because of biased patriarchal gender roles women suffer from gender-based violence. They claim that in patriarchy men have special power and privileges which allow them to dominate and control women to their benefit. They use corporal punishment and sexual violence in case women deny to submit to them. Thus, feminists protest the imposition of traditional gender roles in the process of socialization. They demand for a more egalitarian perspective towards gender which allows human individuals to live according to their interests and capacities. In Blue Mimosa, the female characters become the victim of gender-based violence. They are physically assaulted, raped, and murdered. Their bodies become the site where men enact violence. Thus, feminism is relevant to analyze the text. The article argues that these female characters become the victim of violence just because they are women. The article helps to understand how women suffer from gender-based violence in patriarchy.


Author(s):  
Jama Shelton ◽  
Kel Kroehle ◽  
Emilie K. Clark ◽  
Kristie Seelman ◽  
SJ Dodd

The enforcement of the gender binary is a root cause of gender-based violence (GBV) for trans people. Disrupting GBV requires that we ensure that ‘gender’ is not presumed synonymous with White cisgender womanhood. Transfeminists suggest that attaining gender equity requires confronting all forms of oppression that police people and their bodies, including White supremacy, colonialism and capitalism (Silva and Ornat, 2016; Simpkins, 2016). Part of this project, we argue, includes confronting the structures of GBV embedded within digital technologies that are increasingly part of our everyday lives. Informed by transfeminist theory (Koyama, 2003; Stryker and Bettcher, 2016; Simpkins, 2016; Weerawardhana, 2018), we interrogate the ways in which digital technologies naturalise and reinforce GBV against bodies marked as divergent. We examine the subtler ways that digital technology can fortify binary gender as a mechanism of power and control. We highlight how gendered forms of data violence cannot be disentangled from digital technologies that surveil, police or punish on the basis of race, nationhood and citizenship, particularly in relation to predictive policing practices. We conclude with recommendations to guide technological development to reduce the violence enacted upon trans people and those whose gender presentations transgress society’s normative criteria for what constitutes a compliant (read: appropriately gendered) citizen.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Violence against trans people is inherently gender-based.</li><br /><li>A root cause of gender-based violence against trans people is the strict reinforcement of the gender binary.</li><br /><li>Digital technology and predictive policing can fortify binary gender as a mechanism of power and control.</li><br /><li>Designers of digital technologies and the policymakers regulating surveillance capitalism must interrogate the ways in which their work upholds the gender binary and gender-based violence against trans people.</li></ul>


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Atnike Nova Sigiro

<p>This article was formulated based on interviews with 5 (five) trade union confederations from a number of confederations in Indonesia, namely: Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Nasional (KSPN), Konfederasi Sarikat Buruh Muslimin Indonesia (KSarbumusi), Konfederasi Serikat Buruh Seluruh Indonesia (KSBSI), Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Indonesia (KSPI), and Konfederasi Kongres Aliansi Serikat Buruh Indonesia (KKASBI). This article seeks to explore the efforts made by the trade union confederation in promoting gender equality - specifically in advancing the agenda for the prevention and elimination of sexual violence in the world of work. This article was compiled based on research with a qualitative approach, with data collection methods through interviews and literature studies. The results of this study found that the confederations interviewed had already set up internal structures that have specific functions on issues related to gender equality, gender-based violence, and women’s empowerment; although still limited and on ad-hoc basis. This research also finds that the role of the trade union confederation is particularly prominent in advocating policies related to sexual violence and gender-based violence in the world of work, such as advocating the Bill on the Elimination of Sexual Violence, and the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 190 on Violence and Harassment.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 90-117
Author(s):  
Virginija Šidlauskienė ◽  
Rasa Pocevičienė

The sociocultural contexts of higher education institutions form the background for gender-based violence in professional structures and environment of academia. The article presents the comparative analysis of sexual violence and the reasons for its (non-)disclosure at the universities in Lithuania and Cyprus. The findings of focus group interviews conducted within the framework of the Ending Sexual Harassment and Violence in Third Level Education (ESHTE) project, co-funded by the European Union, have been summarized in the present research. The focus group participants from each partner university involved university teachers, administrative staff, counselors and university students. The research was conducted during a 3-month period between 2017 and 2018. The main aim was to investigate university staffs’ and students’ experiences in the disclosures of the cases of sexual violence and harassment (SVH) in university environment and campus, as well as their awareness of  existing procedures and policies in handling the cases of SVH. Their personal experiences, attitudes and beliefs of SVH, as well as any suggestions they have towards the improvement of disclosures of SVH are discussed in the article.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilene Hyman ◽  
Mandana Vahabi ◽  
Annette Bailey ◽  
Sejal Patel ◽  
Sepali Guruge ◽  
...  

Background Violence is a critical public health problem associated with compromised health and social suffering that are preventable. The Centre for Global Health and Health Equity organized a forum in 2014 to identify: (1) priority issues related to violence affecting different population groups in Canada, and (2) strategies to take action on priority issues to reduce violence-related health inequities in Canada. In this paper, we present findings from the roundtable discussions held at the Forum, offer insights on the socio-political implications of these findings, and provide recommendations for action to reduce violence through research, policy and practice. Methods Over 60 academic researchers, health and social service agency staff, community advocates and graduate students attended the daylong Forum, which included presentations on structural violence, community violence, gender-based violence, and violence against marginalized groups. Detailed notes taken at the roundtables were analyzed by the first author using a thematic analysis technique. Findings The thematic analysis identified four thematic areas: 1) structural violence perpetuates interpersonal violence - the historical, social, political and economic marginalization that contributes to personal and community violence. 2) social norms of gender-based violence—the role of dominant social norms in perpetuating the practice of violence, especially towards women, children and older adults; 3) violence prevention and mitigation programs—the need for policy and programming to address violence at the individual/interpersonal, community, and societal levels; and 4) research gaps—the need for comprehensive research evidence made up of systematic reviews, community-based intervention and evaluation of implementation research to identify effective programming to address violence. Conclusions The proceedings from the Global Health and Health Equity Forum underscored the importance of recognizing violence as a public health issue that requires immediate and meaningful communal and structural investment to break its historic cycles. Based on our thematic analysis and literature review, four recommendations are offered: (1) Support and adopt policies to prevent or reduce structural violence; (2) Adopt multi-pronged strategies to transform dominant social norms associated with violence; (3) Establish standards and ensure adequate funding for violence prevention programs and services; and (4) Fund higher level ecological research on violence prevention and mitigation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 44-47
Author(s):  
Eileen Alma

In the last two years, ethnically motivated sexual and gender-based violence rose in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country marked with ethnic-based tensions and conflict over the control of its extractive industries over decades. According to the 2018 Report of the United Nations Secretary General to the United Nations, sexualized violence cases emerged and spread in several provinces in 2017 with at least 804 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in this period, affecting 507 women, 265 girls, 30 men and 2 boys. Despite progress by the international community actors to end these abhorrent practices, this marks a significant increase from the previous year and the delay in national elections has exacerbated conflict. Both non-state actors and state actors are identified perpetrators of sexual violence, including the Congolese National Police.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-324
Author(s):  
Daniela Kravetz

Abstract This article examines how national courts in Argentina and Guatemala are applying the international criminal law framework to address sexual violence perpetrated during mass repression and in conflict. It focuses on the emerging domestic jurisprudence in both countries and explores the challenges to prosecuting sexual and gender-based violence at the domestic level and the lessons learned from these experiences.


AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 214-219
Author(s):  
Kelly-Jo Bluen

In their contribution to the AJIL Symposium, Robinson and MacNeil remark that a prolific legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is that “it is now commonsense that rape is and must be a war crime.” This line distills the complexity of the legacies of the tribunals regarding sexual and gender-based violence. On the one hand, it articulates the critical role of the tribunals in cementing the idea that sexual violence, hitherto largely relegated to indifference in international criminal law and policy frameworks, is worthy of international attention. Simultaneously, it encapsulates the ways in which the tribunals’ jurisprudence has been received globally to narrate a narrow conception of conflict-related sexual violence as a “weapon of war” or committed as part of “strategic” conflict-related goals. In fact, there is little that constitutes common sense about sexual violence in conflict, nor is it always, or even most predominantly, committed as a war crime, crime against humanity,or in pursuit of genocide as envisaged by international criminal law. Various studies suggest that sexual violence in war takes many forms and causalities with differentiation across and within conflict contexts.


BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. e022621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoé Mistrale Hendrickson ◽  
Anna M Leddy ◽  
Noya Galai ◽  
Jessie K Mbwambo ◽  
Samuel Likindikoki ◽  
...  

ObjectivesTo examine how work-related mobility among female sex workers (FSWs) is associated with gender-based violence (GBV) in Iringa, Tanzania.DesignCross-sectional analyses were conducted on baseline data gathered between October 2015 and April 2016 from FSWs participating in Project Shikamana, a community empowerment-based combination HIV prevention intervention.SettingParticipants were recruited for the baseline study using venue-based time-location sampling in two communities in Iringa, Tanzania.ParticipantsFSWs were eligible for participation if they were 18 years or older and had exchanged sex for money within the past month. Four-hundred ninety-six FSWs participated in the baseline survey.Primary and secondary outcome measuresAny recent experience of GBV was examined by recent work-related mobility among FSWs. Any recent experience of GBV was also disaggregated by severity for analyses. All bivariate and multivariate binary and multinomial logistic regressions adjusted for intraclass correlations among women recruited from the same venues.ResultsForty per cent of participants experienced recent physical or sexual violence, and 30% recently experienced severe physical or sexual violence. Thirty-three per cent of participants recently exchanged sex for money outside of their district or region, and 12% were both intraregionally and inter-regionally mobile for sex work. Intraregionally and inter-regionally mobile FSWs had 1.9 times greater odds of reporting recent GBV (adjusted OR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.06 to 3.38; p=0.031) compared with non-mobile FSWs and a 2.5 times higher relative risk for recent experience of severe GBV relative to no recent GBV (relative risk ratio: 2.51; 95% CI: 1.33 to 4.74; p=0.005).ConclusionsMobility for sex work may increase FSWs’ exposure to GBV, particularly more severe GBV. The vulnerability of mobile FSWs to violence, particularly severe forms, demands inclusive services that are accessible to mobile FSWs.


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