Read the newsletter No 2. April 2021 Resourser for male survivors of SGBV
Mental Health and Human Rights Info (MHHRI) Newsletter April 2021
MHHRI provides information about mental health and human rights violations View this email in your browser
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Overview of content:
Sexual Assault Awareness Month
What do we know about the issue?
How can we all contribute to change?
Download the MHHRI GBV manual
Upcoming Event
Sexual Assault Awareness Month is an annual campaign with the aim to raise awareness about the issue and to educate people around the world about preventing sexual assault.
“Systems of oppression give greater social power to some people over others based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and other aspects of identity. Working towards a future without sexual violence means that advocates, survivors, and communities need to respond to a complex and layered reality that centers the needs of those survivors most marginalized, silenced, and unseen”.
California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA)
Video: Male Survivors of Sexual Violence in War
MHHRI’s focus is on people of all sexual orientations, women, men and children who are exposed to human rights violations such as sexual violence in war and conflict. It can happen to anyone of any race, gender, economic status, ability, or age. All forms of sexual assault are violations of human rights and therefore illegal.
What do we know about the issue?
By sexual assault we mean any sexual act that survivors have been exposed to without their consent. Also, taking advantage of a victim’s incapacity to give genuine consent is considered abuse. An example is trading food for sex, which can be a form of coercion. Sexual violence in war and conflict is often considered a “weapon of war” and could classify as an act of torture. The overall aim of sexual violence is to humiliate, control and intimidate a person or a population to disrupt social ties.
It is difficult to estimate the prevalence of conflict-related sexual violence. An important reason is underreporting, which results from the intimidation and stigmatization of survivors. Females are more likely to be victims of sexual and gender-based violence, as well as LGBTQ+ and people with disability, but also a high number of men and boys are violated during war and conflict.
In order to create societal change, we need to break down taboos and shame around the topic, so it becomes less taboo to talk about it. We need to recognize the problem, dare to address it and require zero tolerance for sexual violence. Fortunately, based on the hard work of advocates and local organizations in the past decade, global understanding of the horrific impacts of conflict-related sexual violence has increased.
How can we all contribute to change?
We at MHHRI provide a resource database with free information about the consequences of human rights violations on mental health in contexts of disaster, conflict, and war. We wish to give necessary support and resources to survivors of sexual assault, their families, and helpers.
Everyone’s voice is important and necessary in preventing sexual violence. By spreading more awareness and educating people on the issue, we increase our number of allies to support survivors and prevent sexual violence before it happens.
We need to know where, when and how it happens to be able to do something about the problem, to know where to use our resources. Put simply: We need to know about the problem to be able to do something about it.
Change starts with awareness.
Further resources:
Resources for male survivors (in Norwegian)
Gender-based violence
Violence against women, girls, men, and boys manifests itself in physical, sexual, and psychological forms. Even so, during times of instability, women and girls are disproportionately impacted by sexual and gender-based violence.
Are you a survivor?
Dear survivor and those of you who are close to a survivor. Having one’s human rights violated can lead to painful short and/or long-term physical and/or psychological consequences. In the following, you can find information and resources that we hope will be of help to take the first steps to move on in life.
Online training course about gender-based violence
If you are working with or assisting survivors of gender-based violence or involved in training of helpers working directly with survivors, this is a good resource for you.
Q&A: sexual violence in armed conflict
International committee of the red cross, 2016
The ICRC firmly believes that sexual violence in armed conflicts can be stopped. Through a comprehensive response including assistance, protection and prevention it seeks to ensure that the needs of victims are met and that activities to prevent these crimes are undertaken. The ICRC has committed to improving its response over the next four years, by enhancing and expanding its programs and strengthening its capacity to address this.
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free from our GBV web page. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian, and Portuguese. We have also created an online training on gender-based violence manual. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars, and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations, or in your community.
Facebook and Instagram
On our MHHRI Facebook page, and on Instagram we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our website, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming Events
Free online global health research in the last decades
Parallel session 1: Symposium 1 is focusing on Mental health
Online 20 – 21 April 2021
IRCT symposium in Georgia – postponed
2021 IRCT Scientific Symposium & General Assembly
Overcoming the Extreme: Life after Torture
2021 in Tbilisi, Georgia (more information will follow)
17th biennial conference of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
Trauma and resilience through the ages: A life course perspective.
01- 04 June 2022
Northern Ireland.
Cinema Human Rights and Advocacy
16th edition of the Summer School
in Cinema Human Rights and Advocacy
30 August – 8 September 2021
4th European Conference on Domestic Violence
September 13th – 15th 2021 | online from Slovenia
Global challenges in health, migration, and equity
ECTMIH 2021
28. September – 1. October Bergen | Norway
22nd Nordic Conference For Professionals
Working With Traumatised Refugees
Rescheduled 9-10.12.2021 | Helsinki, Finland
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
All being well, the International Society for Health and Human Rights looks forward to welcoming you to the 11th ISHHR conference and programme of capacity building in Medellin, Colombia 2021/2022 (tentative dates).
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando.
- Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behavior, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
- Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
- Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
- Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
We appreciate feedback and comments
The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective.
We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.
If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
Take care – and wishing you all the best.
Sincerely yours,
Elisabeth Langdal, Sara Skilbred, Mónica Orjuela, the MHHRI team
Mental Health and Human Rights Info
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
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