scholarly journals Towards Comprehensive Guidance for States in the African Region to respond to Children’s Rights in Emergencies, Disasters and Pandemics

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 447-474
Author(s):  
Nicole Bouah ◽  
Julia Sloth-Nielsen

Abstract The covid-19 pandemic spread has it impacted health systems, economies and communities across the African continent. It has also exacerbated risks already faced by children: limiting access to education, reducing protection from sexual and gender-based violence, harmful traditional and cultural practices including child, early or forced marriage (cefm), female genital-mutilation (fgm); and further limiting access to reproductive services and food insecurity. This article illustrates that because demonstrably different considerations arise by comparison to children’s experiences in the global north, it would be a valuable contribution for the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child to develop a General Comment on state responses to upholding children’s rights in the context of epidemics, pandemics and emergencies, tailored to the specificities of the region.

Author(s):  
Kjersti Lohne

The figure of the victim is the sine qua non of the fight against impunity for international crimes. Engaging the victimological imagination of international criminal justice, the chapter shows how victims are represented, and how justice for victims is imagined. The first part focuses on imaginations of ‘justice for victims’, and argues that the ICC represents a form of hybrid justice by incorporating ‘restorative’ and ‘transformative’ rationales for justice. Unlike ordinary courts, the ICC incorporates what can be thought of as both ‘punitive’ and ‘reparative’ arms. Part of the latter is the Rome Statute’s provisions for victims’ rights to participation and reparation. However, a closer look at the implementation of these processes reveal a conspicuous discrepancy between ideologies and realities. The second part of the chapter situates victims as a source of moral authority, and one that is claimed in representational practices by both human rights NGOs and international criminal justice generally. The chapter explores suffering as a type of ‘currency’, both on an individual level for victims’ advocates, as their source of ‘purpose’, and on a broader cultural level as the source of ‘global’ moral outcry. The chapter demonstrates how the victim is culturally represented through imaginations from the global North and becomes universalized as a symbol of humanity, of which the gendered and racialized victim of sexual and gender-based violence provides particularly powerful victim imagery. In this way, the image of the victim of international crimes is characterized by her essential ‘otherness’: it is humanity that suffers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 134-151
Author(s):  
Siobán O’Brien Green

This article presents insights and practical lessons learned from multiple studies the author has undertaken and participated in as principal or co-researcher and/or provided expert guidance to in Ireland and Europe. These studies primarily focus on gender-based violence (GBV) and female genital mutilation (FGM) and given their foci, have an implicit need for cognisance of child protection, legislation and onward referral procedures. The research issues of interest are often considered taboo, private, not to be discussed outside immediate family and shameful. There are multiple practical and logistical barriers, as well as language and psycho-social obstacles, to participating in, and undertaking, research on these issues. The article discusses the approaches and routes taken to recruit women affected and impacted by the issues of FGM and GBV for research studies. The responsibility on researchers to present research study findings in a sensitive manner which does not add stigma to marginalised and vulnerable groups, but that enables policy makers to utilise the research for legislative and practical purposes, is also discussed.Keywords: gender-based violence (GBV); female genital mutilation (FGM); migration; ethics; stigma; research design


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 490-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Holt

Across the Global North, adolescent-to-parent abuse (APA) is becoming recognized as a significant social problem and is receiving attention from researchers, policymakers, and practitioners who work in the intersecting fields of juvenile justice, child protection, and domestic violence. One of the key questions shaping current debates concerns the extent to which APA maps onto the contours of domestic violence, in terms of research and theory, policy, and practice. In particular, to what extent can our established ways of working with domestic violence be applied when working with APA? This article begins by reviewing definitions and prevalence rates of APA. It then considers how the problem fits into the “family conflicts” and “gender-based violence” paradigms that are most frequently used to conceptualize domestic violence. The article then examines how APA represents a similar but distinct phenomenon to adult-instigated domestic violence and identifies how its departures represent particular challenges in working toward its elimination. The article concludes by reviewing intervention programs that work with APA and exploring some of the ways in which they adopt and reject elements of good practice from the domestic violence practice field.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 709-737
Author(s):  
Jane Ezirigwe

Abstract The paper discusses the role of law in ensuring that the agricultural productivity of small-scale women farmers in Nigeria is not encumbered by cultural practices and absence of extant laws and policies. Employing the feminist theory, it examines the existence and enforcement of equality rights for women to access productive assets including land, credit and agricultural extension services. It explores the specific challenges women encounter from perspectives other than limited access, including gender-based violence and gender-specific roles. The aim of the paper is to challenge some ubiquitous sociocultural practices that hinder the active participation and contribution of small-scale women farmers in agriculture and food security in Nigeria. It suggests how laws and policies can help increase this productivity. It concludes with recommendations on adequate legal frameworks, policy awareness, a commitment to promote women’s rights, as well as increased public investment in rural infrastructure to promote production of adequate, affordable and safe food in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner.


2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-142
Author(s):  
Stephen Vertigans ◽  
◽  
Natascha Mueller-Hirth ◽  
Fredrick Okinda

Informal settlements have been identified as locations both where the spread of COVID-19 has generally been slower than within the Global North and measures to restrain the pandemic have further intensified local peoples’ marginality as income decreases without welfare or financial safety nets. In this paper, qualitative fieldwork is detailed which commenced in Korogocho, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, immediately prior to national COVID-19 restrictions. This March 2020, pre-COVID phase of the fieldwork focused on a community-based project and the basis for resilience in transforming local lives. During the next 12 months of the pandemic fieldwork continued, exploring experiences and reactions to restraining policies. These findings reinforce concerns about the impact of COVID-19 related restrictions on marginalised peoples’ income, food security, health, safety and gender-based violence. How the local people reacted to these effects highlights their creative resilience and adaptability. The paper concludes by examining the impact of, and responses to, the controlling measures on the social relationships and cohesion that underpins the community resilience.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-112

This sample of photos from 16 August–15 November 2019 aims to convey a sense of Palestinian life during this quarter. The images capture Palestinians across the diaspora as they fight to exercise their rights: to run for office, to vote, and to protest both Israeli occupation and gender-based violence.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Snodgrass

This article explores the complexities of gender-based violence in post-apartheid South Africa and interrogates the socio-political issues at the intersection of class, ‘race’ and gender, which impact South African women. Gender equality is up against a powerful enemy in societies with strong patriarchal traditions such as South Africa, where women of all ‘races’ and cultures have been oppressed, exploited and kept in positions of subservience for generations. In South Africa, where sexism and racism intersect, black women as a group have suffered the major brunt of this discrimination and are at the receiving end of extreme violence. South Africa’s gender-based violence is fuelled historically by the ideologies of apartheid (racism) and patriarchy (sexism), which are symbiotically premised on systemic humiliation that devalues and debases whole groups of people and renders them inferior. It is further argued that the current neo-patriarchal backlash in South Africa foments and sustains the subjugation of women and casts them as both victims and perpetuators of pervasive patriarchal values.


2021 ◽  
pp. sextrans-2020-054896
Author(s):  
Navin Kumar ◽  
Kamila Janmohamed ◽  
Kate Nyhan ◽  
Laura Forastiere ◽  
Wei-Hong Zhang ◽  
...  

ObjectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing socioeconomic and health disparities, including disparities in sexual health and well-being. While there have been several reviews published on COVID-19 and population health disparities generally—including some with attention to HIV—none has focused on sexual health (ie, STI care, female sexual health, sexual behaviour). We have conducted a scoping review focused on sexual health (excluding reproductive health (RH), intimate partner violence (IPV) and gender-based violence (GBV)) in the COVID-19 era, examining sexual behaviours and sexual health outcomes.MethodsA scoping review, compiling both peer-reviewed and grey literature, focused on sexual health (excluding RH, IPV and GBV) and COVID-19 was conducted on 15 September 2020. Multiple bibliographical databases were searched. Study selection conformed to Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Reviewers’ Manual 2015 Methodology for JBI Scoping Reviews. We only included English-language original studies.ResultsWe found that men who have sex with men may be moving back toward pre-pandemic levels of sexual activity, and that STI and HIV testing rates seem to have decreased. There was minimal focus on outcomes such as the economic impact on sexual health (excluding RH, IPV and GBV) and STI care, especially STI care of marginalised populations. In terms of population groups, there was limited focus on sex workers or on women, especially women’s sexual behaviour and mental health. We noticed limited use of qualitative techniques. Very few studies were in low/middle-income countries (LMICs).ConclusionsSexual health research is critical during a global infectious disease pandemic and our review of studies suggested notable research gaps. Researchers can focus efforts on LMICs and under-researched topics within sexual health and explore the use of qualitative techniques and interventions where appropriate.


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