The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development
Patel et al.
2018
The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development is a comprehensive synthesis of knowledge on global mental health, designed to catalyse worldwide action. It builds on the 2007 and 2011 The Lancet series on global mental health that helped make mental health care a greater priority worldwide. The ultimate goal of the Commission is to guide action to reduce the global burden of mental health problems. The Commission should give fresh impetus to the prioritisation of mental health, helping ensure physical and mental health are valued equally by the global health and development communities.
The Commission has three unique guiding principles:
– our approach to mental health covers the full spectrum of mental health from day-to-day wellness to long-term, disabling conditions.
– mental health is the product of psychosocial, environmental, biological and genetic factors interacting with neurodevelopmental processes.
– mental health should be respected as a fundamental right.
https://globalmentalhealthcommission.org/the-report/
Manual for stabilisation and skills training after traumatic events
Støren, Odland and Christie
2018
This manual has been developed to help stabilise symptoms in people who have experienced traumatic events. Their need is first of all to obtain skills to deal with their symptoms. They need to recognise that the painful events are no longer happening, to acquire a sense of safety in the present and to gain more perceived control over thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. The manual can be used as a first-stage intervention prior to processing traumatic events.
http://www.hhri.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Manual_stabilisation_nettutgave_13_april_2018.cleaned.pdf
Conclusion on Women and Girls at Risk
UN
Recalling that the protection of women and girls is primarily the responsibility of States, whose full and effective cooperation, action and political resolve are required to enable UNHCR to fulfil its mandated functions; and that all action on behalf of women and girls must be guided by obligations under relevant international law, including, as applicable, international refugee law, international human rights law and international humanitarian law (for historical reference).
http://www.unhcr.org/excom/exconc/45339d922/conclusion-women-girls-risk.html
Shedding light on a dark practice
IRCT 2009
This book is primarily intended for health and legal professionals who work with or are likely to come into contact with torture survivors, but anyone with an interest in the question of torture will find useful insights. These short articles provide an array of illuminating and readable perspectives on different aspects of a complicated subject. Together they comprise an excellent introduction to the many challenges and opportunities associated with the task of establishing medical evidence in cases of alleged torture.
https://irct.org/publications/thematic-reports/55Investigating Rape at the International Criminal Court: The Impact of Trauma
Ellie Smith 2012
The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been characterised by the widespread and systematic perpetration of rape and other forms of sexual violence. Rape has been committed by all actors in the conflict, including those operating in the Ituri region of the country, and the use of rape by Lubangas Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) in particular has been widely reported and documented by the UN and NGOs alike.
http://wunrn.com/wp-content/uploads/Lubanga.pdfViolence, Vulnerability and Migration: Trapped at the Gates of Europe
MSF
2013
The exact proportions of sexual violence are impossible to measure, yet MSFs medical data reveals that it is a problem of alarming proportions. Information provided by our patients reveals the high risk of sexual violence throughout the migration process, with survivors experiencing rape and other forms of sexual violence by numerous different perpetrators in their countries of origin, in route and in Morocco itself.
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CMW/Shared%20Documents/MAR/INT_CMW_NGO_MAR_14800_E.pdf
Hidden violence is silent rape: sexual and gender-based violence in refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands
Ines Keygnaert
2012
Although women, young people and refugees are vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) worldwide, little evidence exists concerning SGBV against refugees in Europe. Using community-based participatory research, 223 in-depth interviews were conducted with refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands. Responses were analysed using framework analysis.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3379780/
What the eye does not see: a critical interpretive synthesis of European Union policies addressing sexual violence in vulnerable migrants
Ines Keygnaert & Aurore Guieu
2015
In Europe, refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants are more vulnerable to sexual victimisation than European citizens. They face more challenges when seeking care. This literature review examines how legal and policy frameworks at national, European and international levels condition the prevention of and response to sexual violence affecting these vulnerable migrant communities living in the European Union.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.rhm.2015.11.002
INITIAL ASSESSMENT REPORT: Protection Risks for Women and Girls in the European Refugee and Migrant Crisis
UNCHR
2015
For the first time since World War II, Europe is experiencing a massive movement of refugees and migrants, women, girls, men and boys of all ages, fleeing armed conflicts, mass killings, persecution and pervasive sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Many seek refuge in Europe from the ongoing armed conflicts that have torn apart their societies, and are entitled to protection under the (1951) Refugee Convention, its subsequent Protocol, and other international instruments.
http://www.unhcr.org/protection/operations/569f8f419/initial-assessment-report-protection-risks-women-girls-european-refugee.html
Women Refugees at Risk in Europe
The Nobel Women’s Initiative
2016
For the first time since World War II, Europe is experiencing a massive movement of refugees and migrants, women, girls, men and boys of all ages, fleeing armed conflicts, mass killings, persecution and pervasive sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Many seek refuge in Europe from the ongoing armed conflicts that have torn apart their societies, and are entitled to protection under the (1951) Refugee Convention, its subsequent Protocol, and other international instruments.
https://nobelwomensinitiative.org/new-report-women-refugees-at-risk-in-europe/
New Report: Women Refugees at Risk in Europe
Novel´s Women Initiative
2015
The report finds that women are vulnerable a bottleneck points along the route, and even more vulnerable when they reach reception centres that do not have secure and separate sleeping areas for women. Women also experience sexual violence at alarming rates and there is currently 100% impunity for gender-based crimes committed against refugee women. High numbers of refugee women are pregnant with no access to pre- or post-natal care.
https://nobelwomensinitiative.org/new-report-women-refugees-at-risk-in-europe/
I Didn’t Have Anywhere to Run’: Migrant Women Are Facing a Rape Epidemic
Anna-Cat Brigida
2016
An estimated 60 to 80 percent of female migrants from Central America are sexually assaulted on their journeyand perpetrators often act with total impunity. As thousands of Central American women weigh the risks of migrating to the US each year, they must take into account an extra peril: An estimated 80 percent of female migrants from Central America are victims of sexual abuse at the hands of criminal groups, human smugglers, or corrupt officials during the journey.
https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/evgg9j/i-didnt-have-anywhere-to-run-migrant-women-are-facing-a-rape-epidemic
Sexual Violence Against Refugee Women on the Move to and Within Europe
WHO European Region
2017
The objective of this overview is to present the issue of sexual violence (SV) against refugee women and girls and to discuss countermeasures that have been suggested or initiated by the Member States of the WHO European Region and national nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) between January (2015) and May 2016. A literature review was undertaken using Google scholar, the WHO publication database and a cross-search of journal databases.
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/319311/9-Sexual-violence-refugee-women.pdf?ua=1
Women in detention: a guide to gender-sensitive monitoring
Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT)
2017
In this paper, “Women in detention” is addressed to monitoring bodies responsible for the external scrutiny of places of deprivation of liberty. It outlines the risks faced by women deprived of their liberty of being subjected to torture and ill-treatment and measures that can be taken to reduce such risks.
https://www.apt.ch/en/resources/women-in-detention/?cat=17
Women migrants fearing rape take contraceptives before journey – rights groups
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Women migrants fleeing wars, political instability and poverty are taking contraceptives in the expectation of being raped but are so desperate they still embark on the journey, a human rights group said on Wednesday.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-women-conference-migrant-rape/women-migrants-fearing-rape-take-contraceptives-before-journey-rights-groups-idUSKBN13P2BW
Gender-Based Violence against Women: Both Cause for Migration and Risk along the Journey
Migration Policy institute
Each year, countless women and children flee violence at home and take an uncertain journey in the hope of finding safety in a new country. While many escape conflict zones or generalized human-rights abuses, some also run from more intimate forms of violencenamely, sexual and domestic violence perpetrated by men. Setting off on the journey is no guarantee of safety; many are vulnerable to gender-based abuse in transit and even at destination.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/gender-based-violence-against-women-both-cause-migration-and-risk-along-journey
The Neuroscience of Trauma from Sexual Assault
Cognitive Neuroscience Society
A relatively new area of the literature on human response to trauma, particularly the trauma experienced during sexual violence, is that of tonic immobility. Defined as self-paralysis, or as the inability to move even when not forcibly restrained, tonic immobility has long been studied in non-human animals as the freeze response to extreme stress.
https://www.cogneurosociety.org/sexualassault_gigler_may15/
Why Rape and Trauma Survivors Have Fragmented and Incomplete Memories
James Hopper and David Lisak
2014
In states of high stress, fear or terror like combat and sexual assault, the prefrontal cortex is impaired sometimes even effectively shut down by a surge of stress chemicals.
http://time.com/3625414/rape-trauma-brain-memory/
Sexual Assault & the Brain
Jim Hopper
Why are memories of sexual assault so often fragmentary and confusing? The answer has big implications for people who’ve been sexually assaulted, for those who investigate and prosecute such crimes, and for everyone else who knows or works with someone who’s been sexually assaulted.
https://www.jimhopper.com/sexual-assault-and-the-brain/
Transcript “The Neurobiology of Sexual Assault”
Rebecca Campbell, Ph.D. December
Dr. Campbell discuss the research on the neurobiology of trauma and the criminal justice system response to sexual assault. She will explain the underlying neurobiology of traumatic events, its emotional and physical manifestation, and how these processes can impact the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault.
https://www.nij.gov/multimedia/presenter/presenter-campbell/Pages/presenter-campbell-transcript.aspx