Gender Based Violence

What is gender-based violence?

2017European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)

Gender-based violence is a phenomenon deeply rooted in gender inequality, and continues to be one of the most notable human rights violations within all societies. Gender-based violence is violence directed against a person because of their gender. B...

Facts and figures: Ending violence against women

2019UN Women

General overview on violence against women, definitions, terms, and facts.

Understanding and addressing violence against women: Se...

2012World Health Organization

Sexual violence encompasses acts that range from verbal harassment to forced penetration, and an array of types of coercion, from social pressure and intimidation to physical force.

WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic ...

2005World Health Organization

This study analyses data from 10 countries and sheds new light on the prevalence of violence against women in countries where few data were previously available. It also uncovers the forms and patterns of this violence across different countries and ...

Definitions of sexual and gender-based violence

The New Humanitarian

The term “gender-based violence” refers to violence that targets individuals or groups on the basis of their gender. The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (C...

Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against wo...

2011UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women

This is the first written report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo, to the General Assembly, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 65/187. The report provides an overview of t...

Shattered lives: Immediate medical care vital for sexua...

2009Médecins Sans Frontières

This booklet includes both an overview over the topic, the necessary procedures concerning the victims/survivors (mostly medical) in the field, as well as explanations by means of presenting the situation in some chosen countries.

The Economic Cost of Gender Based Violence Survey Egypt...

UNFPA, CAPMAS

The first national survey measuring prevalence of the different types and forms of gender based violence inflicted on women and girls and its impact on women’s health, and it measures the associated economic costs on their families, society and state...

Trauma-informed Responses to Sexual Assault

2015Queensland Centre For Domestic + Family Violence Research

The damaging, pervasive and life-long impacts of sexual assault for survivors/victims are well documented (see, for example, Quadara, 2015). Responses to sexual violence have evolved as the nature and complexities of this type of violence has become ...

Mental health and gender-based violence Helping survivo...

2014MHHRI

This training manual has been developed for helpers who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual trauma during disasters, conflicts and emergency situations, where access to health professionals with ...

The Inter-Agency Minimum Standards for Gender-Based Vio...

2019UNFPA

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a horrifying reality and human rights violation for women and girls globally. During emergencies, the risk of violence, exploitation and abuse is heightened. At the same time, national systems, including health and lega...

Working with gender-based violence survivors: Reference...

2012UNRWA

UNRWA prioritises gender equality and the empowerment of women, and over the course of its existence has achieved much success. UNRWA is now building on this work to address a difficult but important gender issue: Gender Based Violence (GBV). GBV bli...

Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interv...

2015IASC

Sexual violence in armed conflict is a crime against humanity and is being used as a method of war to brutalise and instil fear in the civilian population, especially women and girls. The humanitarian community must come together and act together to ...

How to support survivors of gender-based violence when ...

IASC, Global Protection Cluster

A STEP-BY-STEP POCKET GUIDE FOR HUMANITARIAN PRACTITIONERS The Pocket Guide and its supporting materials provide all humanitarian practitioners with information on: How to support a survivor of gender-based violence (GBV) Who discloses their experien...

Mental health and psychosocial support for conflict-rel...

United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UNAction)

This is a summary of the report from a meeting on Responding to the psychosocial and mental health needs of sexual violence survivors in conflict-affected settings, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), with United Nations Population Fund...

A Practical Approach to Gender Based Violence: A Progra...

2001UNFPA

A sizeable proportion of women, worldwide, have experienced GBV. However, many women will not mention violence unless asked directly. Yet, few health care providers have been trained to address these difficult issues with their clients and few clinic...

Strengthening Health System Responses to Genderbased Vi...

2014UNFPA & WAVE

This resource package aims to strengthen the knowledge and skills of health care professionals to understand GBV, to identify patients who have experienced GBV and to provide survivors with appropriate care, support and referrals. It seeks to provide...

SGBV Prevention and Response

2016UNHCR

The Training Package is designed to help facilitators deliver introductory, interactive training on the prevention of and response to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Facilitators should have field-experience working on SGBV prevention and re...

Guidance for mediators: Addressing conflict-related sex...

2012UN Department of Political Affairs

This guidance offers advice to aid the mediator and his/her team in addressing a frequently used method and tactic of warfare: conflict-related sexual violence. It provides strategies for including this security and peace building concern within ceas...

Handbook for Coordinating Gender Based Violence interve...

2010Gender-based Violence Area of Responsibility Working Group

This handbook is meant to be a quick-reference tool that provides practical guidance on leadership roles, key responsibilities and specific actions to be taken when establishing and maintaining a GBV coordination mechanism in an emergency. The handbo...

Handbook for Coordinating Gender-based Violence Interve...

2019Gender Based Violence AoR

Why coordination matters now? In the wake of horrific accounts of Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies (GBViE) that span the globe, the voices of survivors have galvanized the international community to work towards the elimination of GBV. The protec...

Gender-based Violence Tools Manual

2004RHRC

This manual (207 p.) tries to cover most of administrative and organizational considerations required to establish help. Lots of form-sheets useful to organize help practically. Form-sheets for structured interviews etc. “For Assessment & Program...

Facilitator’s Guide – Training Manual for Multisectoral...

2004RHRC

This manual includes and provides information and (interactive) training to create workshops and seminars, for planning interventions to address GBV in displaced settings around the world. Most focus on administrative and practical issues, some infor...

Camp management toolkit

2015IOM, NRC, UNHCR

The 2015 edition of the Camp Management Toolkit represents the most comprehensive guidance for those engaged in camp responses to displacement. The Toolkit provides guidelines that serve as practical support for national authorities, national and int...

Clinical management of rape survivors

2004UNHCR

This guide describes best practices in the clinical management of people who have been raped in emergency situations. It is intended for adaptation to each situation, taking into account national policies and practices, and availability of materials ...

Sexual and gender-based violence against refugees, retu...

UNHCR

These Guidelines are intended to be used by the staff of UNHCR, UN agencies, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations and host government agencies who provide protection and assistance to refugees and persons of concern to UNHCR. They ar...

Checklist for Action – Prevention & Response to Ge...

2004RHRC

Produced by The Gender-Based Violence Global Technical Sup- port Project of the RHRC Consortium. The GBV Technical Sup- port Project provides a wide range of information, training, and support to field programs. Through on- and off-site consulta- tio...

Researcher Trauma, Safety and Sexual Violence Research

2010SVRI

Briefing paper- Working and researching with victims of sexual violence can be traumatic to the researcher and can result in secondary traumatic stress or vicarious traumatisation. This paper explores the experiences of sexual violence researchers fr...

Guidelines for medico-legal care for victims of sexual ...

2003WHO

Health professionals can use the guidelines as a day-to-day service document and/or as a tool to guide the development of health services for victims of sexual violence. The guidelines can also be used to prepare in-service training courses on sexual...

Trauma Treatment Manual

2001Ed Schmookler

A guide in text-form to raise understanding for trauma reactions that could also be used for working with GBV survivors, and to improve communication-skills for field workers helping trauma-survivors, communication examples for approach.

Preventing Gender-based Violence, Building Livelihoods ...

2011Women’s Refugee Commission

New livelihood strategies can increase the risk of gender-based violence (GBV). Women often have no safety net; they usually flee with few resources and little preparation and may become separated from or lose family members. A lack of access to econ...

Managing Gender-based Violence Programmes in Emergencie...

2011UNFPA and World Education, Inc.

Iin consultation with a wide range of GBV experts and humanitarian and development actors worldwide, the goal of this course is to improve the knowledge of programme managers to better address the issue of gender-based violence in humanitarian emerge...

Passing the test. The experience of Liberian school stu...

2014Judy L. Postmus and Rebecca Davis

Gender Based Violence (GBV) in and around schools is now widely recognized as a serious global phenomenon that is a fundamental violation of human rights and a major barrier to the realization of all children’s rights to education.

Guidebook on State Obligations for Conflict-Related Sex...

2023Red Line Initiative

This is why for 10 years I have been calling on the international community to draw a red line against the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. The time has come for States to act to stop this scourge. To support my call to action, the Mukwege ...

Women, Peace and Security international policy framewor...

2019Peace Women

In response to persistent pressure from civil society, the United Nations (UN) Security Council has adopted ten resolutions on “Women, Peace and Security”. These resolutions are: 1325 (2000); 1820 (2009); 1888 (2009); 1889 (2010); 1960 (2011); 2106 (...

Resolution Texts and Translations – SR1325 and o...

2019Peace Women

The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda, launched with UNSC Resolution 1325 in 2000, has expanded into a comprehensive framework with ten resolutions. These resolutions, developed over the years through persistent civil society advocacy, address ...

Indicators on Violence Against Women and State Response

2008Human Rights Council

Policy makers on violence against women consistently request more and better quality information, including data, on violence against women in order to: guide legislative and policy reforms; ensure adequate provision of targeted and effective service...

‘The Maputo Protocol’ – Protocol to the African Charter...

2021Equality Now

One of the world’s most comprehensive and progressive women’s human rights instruments, the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa (‘the Maputo Protocol’) was adopted by Heads of State and Government in Maputo, Mozambique on...

Women’s Rights are Human Rights

2014UN

This publication provides an introduction to women’s human rights, beginning with the main provisions in international human rights law and going on to explain particularly relevant concepts for fully understanding women’s human rights.

Nairobi declaration on women`s and girl`s right to a re...

2007International Federation for Human Rights

Conclusion/declaration as a result of an international meeting on “Women’s and Girls’ Right to a Remedy and Reparation”, held in Nairobi  2007. Participants have been women’s rights advocates and activists, as well as survivors of sexual violence in ...

Sustainable Development Goal 5: Achieve gender equality...

2017UN Women

Gender-based violence seen in different contexts, with the goal to present some of the most important topics: in combination with poverty, reproductive health, HIV, in conflict situations. Issues and challenges with all these topics.

Gender based violence and the law

2017Jeni Klugman, Georgetown University, World Development Report

The Sustainable Development Goals include a specific target to “eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres.” A recent special series of The Lancet on addressing violence against women provides an exc...

Thematic Prosecution of International Sex Crimes

2012FICHL, Morten Bergsmo ed.

Deals with the topic of thematic prosecution of core international crimes. Its focus is on international sex crimes. It is important to justify the singling out of a narrow range of criminality for prosecution, whether in internationalized or nationa...

Changing the Criminal Justice System’s Response to Sexu...

2017ISP EMPLOYMENT LAW, Jennifer Canas,

Trauma Informed Sexual Assault Investigation and Adjudication Training. Justice, for survivors of sexual assault/gender based violence, demands that Trauma-Informed Sexual Assault training and education about the impact of trauma on the brain, comple...

In Ukraine, activists step up to support conflict-relat...

2023UN Women

Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, violence has become a daily reality for millions of Ukrainians, with more than 20,0000 recorded civilian casualties and over 13 million people displaced. Confronting destruction, loss and de...

Conflict related sexual violence: Report of the United ...

2018United Nations

“Conflict-related sexual violence is now widely recognized as a war crime that is preventable and punishable. The United Nations Security Council has played an important role in the past decade by passing successive resolutions that emphasize account...

Report of the United Nations Secretary-General on confl...

2020UN

The present report, which covers the period from January to December 2019, is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 2467 (2019), in which the Council requested me to report on the implementation of resolutions 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 19...

Statement: Placing victims at the centre of investigati...

2019UN Women

Joint message from Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, and Nina Suomalainen, Executive Director of Justice Rapid Response, for the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict (19 June)

Specialized investigation into sexual violence in confl...

2019UN Women

On the sidelines of the UN Security Council open debate on sexual violence in conflict, experts came together to discuss what it takes to achieve justice for conflict-related sexual and gender-based crimes, through investigation and documentation. Ne...

Mental health and psychosocial support for conflict-rel...

2012World Health Organization,

Sexual assault is among the most severe stressors that survivors may experience in their lifetimes. Preventing sexual violence and addressing its consequences requires substantial attention and resources. Conflict-related sexual violence is part of a...

Ending sexual violence in Darfur: An advocacy agenda

2007Refugees International,

This booklet gives a great overview of the impact of sexual violence under the conflict in Darfur. With a focus on the impact on rape, and emerging issues as protection and health response.

Sexual Violence and its Consequences among Displaced Pe...

2005Human Rights Watch

Presenting the situation in Darfur and Chad, with some focus on the social, psychological, medical/clinical consequences of VAW. Short presentation of preferable, necessary standards for response and caretaking.

Promising democracy imposing theocracy – Gender-Based V...

2007MADRE

This report highlights the situation for women in Iraq, and the role the US and the US military have played in establishing the existing situation.

Gender-based violence in the conflict-affected regions ...

2015Ukrainian Centre for Social Reforms

Gender-based violence (GBV) is regarded among the most common human rights violations, occurring all over the world. According to empirical evidence, GBV disproportionately affects women because of the unequal distribution of powers and resources bet...

A psychosocial model of healing from the traumas of eth...

2001Marta Cullberg Weston, The women to women Foundation

There is never any question that damaged buildings, roads, power plants, and factories need to be repaired and rebuilt after a war, but the inner destruction in people’s minds is less obvious and is thus often forgotten. Encountering human evil in su...

Broadening perspectives on trauma and recovery: a socio...

2016European Journal of Psychotraumatology

The present paper elaborates and extends the social–interpersonal framework model of PTSD. This was developed to complement other intrapersonally focused models of PTSD, which emphasize alterations in an individual’s memory, cognitions, or neurobiolo...

Sexual and gender-based violence against refugees, retu...

UNHCR

These Guidelines are intended to be used by the staff of UNHCR, UN agencies, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations and host government agencies who provide protection and assistance to refugees and persons of concern to UNHCR. They ar...

Take five: Uncovering the untold stories of sexual and ...

2017UN Women

The experience from the ad-hoc tribunals has shown that recognition in the form of a judgment, acknowledging the experiences of survivors and the responsibility of perpetrators, is valuable and can help with healing on a number of levels. With the fi...

Gender-related killings of women and girls (femicide/fe...

2022UNOCD

UNODC and UN Women have joined forces to improve data collection through the Statistical framework for measuring the gender-related killing of women and girls (also referred to as “femicide/feminicide”). We have seen some signs of improvement: 99 cou...

Killings of women and girls by their intimate partner o...

2020UNOCD

Some 47,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members in 2020. This means that, on average, a woman or girl is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes. Where trends can be calculated, they s...

Five essential facts to know about femicide

2024UN Women

Every 10 minutes, partners and family members killed a woman intentionally in 2023.   Gender-related killings (femicide/feminicide) are the most brutal and extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls.

A Femicide Factsheet: Global Stats & Calls to Acti...

2022Womankind Worldwide

Violence against women and girls remains one of the least prosecuted and punished crimes in the world. It is “still so deeply embedded in cultures around the world that it is almost invisible,” says the UN, describing it as “a construct of power and ...

Femicides Global Estimates of Intimate Partner Family M...

2023UN Women

More than two decades later, and despite the efforts of women’s rights movements to demand justice and accountability, as well as some notable progress in preventing and responding to violence against women and girls, significant challenges per...

Male victims of sexual violence: war’s silent sufferers

2016Allan Ngari, Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

Sexual violence is a tactic of war, used to humiliate, dominate and instill fear. It is also increasingly being used as a tactic of terrorism. While the focus has largely been on women and girls as victims of sexual violence, boys and men are equally...

Sexual Violence against Men and Boys – a collection of ...

Women´s Refugee Commission (WRC)

The Women’s Refugee Commission’s work with men and boys incorporates feminist principles that prioritize accountability to women and girls. Sexual violence is a risk facing all refugees—women, girls, men, boys, and people with diverse sexual orientat...

Mean Streets: Identifying and Responding to Urban Refug...

2016Women´s Refugee Commission (WRC).

Throughout 2015, WRC conducted a research in urban settings, the first phase of a multi-year project to improve the humanitarian community’s understanding of and response to GBV risks in urban contexts. Quito, Ecuador; Beirut, Lebanon; Kampala, Ugand...

“More Than One Million Pains”: Sexual Violence Against ...

2019Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC)

Every year since 2014, tens of thousands of refugees and migrants have traveled the central Mediterranean route to Italy, one of the most active and dangerous migration passageways in the world. Along the way, many experience kidnapping, exploitation...

Sexual torture of Palestinian men by Israeli authoritie...

2015Daniel J.N. Weishut

In the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, arrests and imprisonment of Palestinian men in their early adulthood are common practice. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) collected thousands of testimonies of Palestinian men...

“We keep it in our heart” Sexual violence against men a...

2017Dr. Sarah Chynoweth, UNHCR

This exploratory study examined sexual violence against men and boys in the Syria crisis and their access to services in Jordan, Lebanon, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). In addition to a review of the literature and an online survey completed...

Sexual Assault: Males

US department of veterans affairs

Common Types of and Prevalence Estimates for Exposure to Traumatic Stressors. Within the U.S. as many as 1 in 4 males will experience some form of sexual abuse during their lifetime. The number of males who are sexually abused during military service...

Male Rape Victims in the Lord’s Resistance Army war and...

2014Linda Lanyero Omona, International Institute for Social Studies

Sexual violence against men in Uganda is an underreported crime. Sexual violence against men is considered taboo in most cultures. It is an issue not talked about because many consider the rape of men nearly impossible. It is clear that men have also...

Working with men and boy survivors of sexual and gender...

2012United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Refugee men and boys can be subjected to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Survivors have specific health, psychosocial, legal, and safety needs, but often find it hard to discuss their experience and access the support they need. The objectiv...

10 Insights from Discussions with Boys and Young Men Tr...

2015Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC)

October 2018, two researchers traveled to Rome and Sicily. We spoke with 52 young men and boys who had traveled to Italy from across Africa and the Middle East. We also talked to 63 social workers, guardians, doctors, psychologists, and other service...

SGBV Prevention and Response

2016UNHCR

The Training Package is designed to help facilitators deliver introductory, interactive training on the prevention of and response to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Facilitators should have field-experience working on SGBV prevention and re...

In some refugee groups, more than one in three men are ...

2014Katie, Nguyen, Thomson Reuters Foundation. May

Sexual violence against men is one of the least told aspects of war. Yet men and boys are victims too of abuse that is frequently more effective at destroying lives and tearing communities apart than guns alone. It can take the form of anal and oral ...

Hope in the Shadows: Male Victims of Sexual Assault in ...

Miya Cain, Harvard Kennedy School.

As a result of ongoing conflict, poverty and instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congolese men and women have been subjected to various forms of sexual violence by warring rebel militia, government forces, and noncombatants. Most hum...

UNHCR issues guidelines on protection of male rape vict...

2012United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against men and boys has generally been mentioned as a footnote in reports. There are no detailed statistics on the number of male victims of SGBV but, the phenomenon is increasingly being recognized as a prote...

Access to Justice for Male Victims of Sexual Violence; ...

2012Meg McMahon, Legal Aid Board

Sexual violence against men has garnered increasing publicity in recent years[2] but still remains extremely under-researched and under-reported. This paper will examine the challenges facing male victims of sexual violence. The paper will look at th...

The rape of men: the darkest secret of war

2011Will Storr, The Guardian.

Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war, an instrument of terror used against women. Yet huge numbers of men are also victims. In this harrowing report, Will Storr travels to Uganda to meet traumatised survivors, and reveals how ma...

Male Rape and Human Rights

L. Stemple, Program for the Study of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Human Rights, Columbia University.

For the last few decades, the prevailing approach to sexual violence in international human rights instruments has focused virtually exclusively on the abuse of women and girls. In the meantime, men have been abused and sexually humiliated during sit...

Engaging Boys and Men in GBV Prevention and Reproductiv...

2008The ACQUIRE Project, USAID

This module is for personnel working in conflict and other emergency-response settings who are interested in engaging boys and men in gender-based violence prevention and reproductive health. This includes those managing or staffing reproductive heal...

Partnering with men to end gender-based violence practi...

2009UNFPA

This publication is about five UNFPA-supported projects in South and Eastern Europe that have made monumental strides in engaging men in the prevention of gender-based violence. The people responsible for these projects are on the cutting edge of dev...

Working with Men and Boys to Prevent Gender-based Viole...

2014Dean Peacock and Gary Barker

Since the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, national governments and UN agencies have steadily adopted and implemented policies and community-based interventions intended to change social norms about gender and masculini...

Engaging Men and Boys in Refugee Settings to Address Se...

2008UN Women, Women’s Commission & Sonk

A workshop report prepared by Caroline Aasheim, Dale Buscher, Dean Peacock and Lynn Ngugi Engaging men and boys has emerged as a vital strategy for ending gender based violence, including in refugee and post-conflict settings. While prevention and re...

UNFPA – Engaging men & boys

2018United Nations Population Fund

UNFPA works with men and boys around the world to advance gender equality – with benefits for all. These programmes are encouraging men and boys to abandon harmful stereotypes, embrace respectful, healthy relationships, and support the human rights o...

Mobilising Men in Practice – Challenging sexual and ge...

2012Greig, Alan with Edström, Jerker

By immersing the participants in a programme of dialogue and action that challenge the inherent nature of male privileges and power structures in society – government, academia and workplace – the men learned a lot about themselves and how they can b...

Masculinities & Engaging Men: Training Manual to e...

2013African Women’s Development and Communication Network

The overall goal of the Men to Men Programme is to create a critical mass of African men who are able to influence communities, organizations and the public to believe in and practise gender equality as a norm. The manual on masculinities provides ri...

Gender-Based Violence: An advocacy guide for grassroots...

2012CARE’s Great Lakes Advocacy Initiative (GLAI)

This guide was developed as a resource for communitybased activists who are working to eliminate gender-based violence in their communities. Often, activists have several roles. Sometimes activists provide case management, and sometimes they educate ...

Female genital mutilation – fact sheet

2017WHO

Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

Policy Brief: Enabling Environments for Eliminating Fem...

2020UNFPA

The policy brief assesses the extent to which UN Member States and their partners across different country contexts have implemented a comprehensive and multisectoral approach in their efforts to prevent and respond to female genital mutilation. It a...

Care of girls and women living with female genital muti...

2018WHO

This publication is that it distils the evidence-informed recommendations into a practical and user-friendly tool for everyday use by health-care providers. It covers a wide range of health topics in nine chapters, ranging from basic knowledge and co...

Female Genital Mutilation Hurts Women and Economies

2020WHO

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is not only a catastrophic abuse of human rights that significantly harms the physical and mental health of millions of girls and women; it is also a drain on a country’s vital economic resources,” said Dr Ian Askew, D...

A statistical exploration on female genital mutilation

2013UNICEF

This report is a comprehensive statistical overview of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the 29 countries where the practice is concentrated. Analysis of the data reflects current perspectives on FGM, informed by the latest policy, programmatic and ...

Primer: Conducting Public Inquiries to Eliminate Female...

2020UNFPA

A public inquiry is an exploration of a systemic human rights problem where the public is invited to play a key role. It lends national human rights institutions, who have a central role to play in advocacy to eliminate female genital mutilation, a p...

Empowering Girls and Women to Lead Change

2020UNFPA, UNICEF

This report shows the many ways that the Joint Programme is empowering girls and women to lead change. Creating an enabling environment through policies and legislation, providing access to an essential package of services, and shifting social and ge...

Ending female genital mutilation/cutting lessons from a...

2013Population Reference Bureau

This review will focus on a few of the key successful approaches and interventions that have had a significant impact on abandonment, identified with guidance from the experts interviewed. This report pulls together the lessons learned from the last ...

Impact of psychological disorders after female genital ...

2011Jan Ilhan Kizilhan – Eur. J. Psychiat

This study investigated the mental health status of young girls after genital mutilation in Northern Iraq. Although experts assume that circumcised girls are more prone to psychiatric illnesses than non-circumcised girls, little research has been con...

UNFPA-UNICEF joint programme on female genital mutilati...

2017The UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

UNFPA and UNICEF jointly lead the largest global programme to accelerate the abandonment of female genital mutilation, it highlights some of the achievements, challenges and best practices for the abandonment of FGM/C and emphasizes the importance of...

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Org...

2000UN

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, adopted by General Assembly resolution 55/25 of 15 November 2000, is the main international instrument in the fight against transnational organized crime. It opened for signature by...

”Toolkit” to Combat Trafficking in Persons

2010UNODOC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

“Electronic toolkit”, with a solid collection of assessments and links, intended to provide guidance, recommend resources, facilitate the sharing of knowledge. Legal and legislative framework, law enforcement and prosecution, victim assistance and pr...

Practical guideline for the Identification of Victims o...

2019IFRC,

It is fundamental in an emergency situation to be able to quickly recognise cases of trafficking. This STEP guideline includes clear, practical information and tools to support frontline officers in carrying out identification in their daily operatio...

Trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitati...

2001PAHO Pan-american health organization

The trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is a high-profit, low-risk trade for those who organize it, but it is detrimental to the millions of women and children exploited in slavery-like conditions in the global sex industry. Thi...

Poverty, gender and human trafficking in Sub-Sahara

2006Thanh-Dam Truong, UNESCO

“Re-thinking best practices in migration management”, solid article (141 p.) which tries to unpack the interconnectedness between human trafficking and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, based on a critical analysis of migration processes in relation to ...

Psychosocial support to groups of victims of human traf...

2004IOM

The publication of the Forth volume of the Psychosocial Notebooks series is an important and pleasant event for me for different reasons. I am extremely glad about the quality of the papers and the relevance of the issues raised. Yet, this notebook a...

The Relationship of Trauma to Mental Disorders Among Tr...

2010Mazeda Hossain et al.

Concludes that the need for mental health care for trafficked persons by highlighting the importance of assessing severity and duration of trafficking-related abuses and need for adequate recovery time. Therapies for anxiety, PTSD, and mood disorders...

Trafficking in women and girls: Report of the Secretary...

2020UN Women

The present report (A/75/289), submitted pursuant to UN General Assembly resolution 73/146, provides information on measures taken by Member States and activities carried out within the United Nations system to eliminate trafficking in women and girl...

Situation Report – Trafficking in human beings in the E...

2016Europol

Report about trafficking human beings (THB) in Europe. It talks about the facilitating factors, the criminal networks that are involved, the exploitation associated with THB, the effects of THB, and and the steps taken to combat THB.

Male and LGBT survivors of sexual violence in conflict ...

2020Kiss, L., Quinlan-Davidson, M., Pasquero, L. et al.,

Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against women and girls has been the subject of increasing research and scholarship. Less is known about the health of men, boys and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and other gender non-binary person...

Still a blind spot: The protection of LGBT persons duri...

2018Margalit, A. (PhD),

This article draws attention to the situation of LGBT persons during armed conflict. Subjected to violence and discrimination outside the context of armed conflict, the latter aggravates their vulnerability and exposure to various abuses. Despite imp...

All Survivors Project. The Health of Male and LGBT Surv...

2020Kiss L, Quinlan-Davidson M, Ollé Tejero P, Pasquero L, Hogg C, Zimmerman C.,

Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against women and girls has received increasing attention globally. At the same time, less is known about men, boys and LGBT persons who suffer CRSV. Research estimates that, in some context, the magnitude of C...

Sexual Violence Against Men, Trans Women in Syria Confl...

2020Brian Stauffer for Human Rights Watch,

Syrian state and non-state actors have subjected men, boys, transgender women, and nonbinary people to sexual violence during the Syrian conflict, resulting in severe physical and mental health consequences which are compounded by a lack of support s...

Male and LGBT survivors of sexual violence in conflict ...

2019Hinck, J. for SwissPeace,

Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against women and girls has been the subject of increasing research and scholarship. Less is known about the health of men, boys and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and other gender non-binary person...

Video. Launch: Supporting helpers in their work with su...

2023MHHRI

After several years of working with the manual on sexual violence against women in war and conflict situations, we at MHHRI are proud to introduce these two new manuals. These manuals represent an important tool for helpers and caregivers working wit...

Children and Gender-based Violence: An overview of exis...

2007Save the Children

Talking about child rights in general is not enough to safeguard each group of this population, and to make them visible. Gender specific vulnerabilities or obstacles to achieving these rights for girls and boys must also be identified. To address th...

Caring for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse – Guid...

2012International Rescue Committee and UNICEF

The guideline is based on global research on child sexual abuse and evidence from field practice. The CCS Resource Package brings a much needed comprehensive and practical approach to helping child survivors and their families recover and heal from t...

Caring for child survivors of sexual abuse Training Use...

2015UNICEF and International Rescue Committee

In addition to the Caring for Child Survivor Guidelines, training materials have been developed to support staff in carrying out training on the content of the guidelines.  The training materials are broken down by topical modules that follow the out...

SGBV Prevention and Response

2016UNHCR

The Training Package is designed to help facilitators deliver introductory, interactive training on the prevention of and response to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Facilitators should have field-experience working on SGBV prevention and re...

Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interv...

2015IASC

Sexual violence in armed conflict is a crime against humanity and is being used as a method of war to brutalise and instil fear in the civilian population, especially women and girls. The humanitarian community must come together and act together to ...

How ending child marriage is critical to achieving the ...

2017The Global Partnership To End Child Marriage

A lack of attention to child marriage undermined the achievement of six of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) between 2000 to 2015. Since then, the international community has learned a lot. We have learned that child marriage is a core de...

Role of Climate Change in Exacerbating Sexual and Gende...

2021Bharat H. Desai and Moumita Mandal

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 ‘...

The mental health of women and climate change: Direct n...

2022Julia Rothschild, Elizabeth Haase

Climate change brings exposures to heat, air pollution, poorer quality food, and infectious disease that have significant direct effects on women and their mental health. These environmental impacts are multifaceted in their consequences and raise ri...

Explainer: How gender inequality and climate change are...

2022UN Women

Gender inequality coupled with the climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our time. It poses threats to ways of life, livelihoods, health, safety and security for women and girls around the world.

Why women are key to climate action

UN Women

The climate crisis does not affect everyone equally. Women and girls face disproportionate impacts from climate change — largely because they make up the majority of the world’s poor, who are highly dependent on local natural resources for their live...

Climate Change’s greatest victims are women and g...

UNICEF

“We had nothing to eat for fifteen days,” sighed Sajida (20), as she recounted to me her experiences of the 2022 floods in Pakistan. “My whole family got Malaria, and we couldn’t access medicines or hospitals as Khairpur was d...

Data-driven insights: the effects of climate change on ...

2023UN Women

Climate change is intensifying the frequency and severity of hydrometeorological hazards. As temperatures change, rain patterns become erratic, and severe weather intensifies, livelihoods and ecosystem are increasingly affected. Immediate climate act...

Gender Impacts of Climate Change: Empirical Evidence Fr...

2023UN Women

The effects of climate change, such as changes in temperatures, precipitation and biodiversity loss, are affecting human health, food security and livelihoods, as well as the quality and availability of land, water and other natural resources. As ind...

World Health Organization – GBV

The United Nations defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary dep...

Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence against Women ...

UN Women – United Nations Development Fund for Women in collaboration with experts in the field

UNHCR The United Nations Refugee Agency

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a serious violation of human rights and a life-threatening health and protection issue. When people flee their homes, they are often at greater risk of physical, sexual and psychological violence, such as rape, sexual a...

ICRC International Committee of The Red Cross

Page on Addressing sexual violence Sexual violence – this remains widespread and prevalent during armed conflicts and other situations of violence, as well as in detention despite being prohibited by international and national laws. It occurs i...

Mental Health & Psychosocial Network

The MHPSS Network is a growing global platform for connecting people, networks and organizations, for sharing resources and for building knowledge related to mental health and psychosocial support both in emergency settings and in situations of chron...

UNiTE to End Violence against Women

The UNITE to End Violence against Women initiative is a multiyear effort to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls around the world.

WomenWatch

UN Women is the UN organization delivering programmes, policies and standards that uphold women’s human rights and ensure that every woman and girl lives up to her full potential.

UNFPA

Gender-based violence is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. It knows no social, economic or national boundaries. Worldwide, an estimated one in three women will experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime. Gender-...

Global Protection Clusters – GBV

The Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR) is the global level forum for coordinating prevention and response to GBV in humanitarian settings. The group brings together NGOs, UN agencies, academics and others under the shared objectiv...

Women`s international league for Peace and freedom (WIL...

Founded in 1915, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a membership-based feminist peacebuilding organisation with presence and impact around the world. Our global movement includes member Sections and Groups in over 40 co...

Peace Women – WILPF’s Women, Peace and Secu...

PeaceWomen is the Women, Peace and Security Programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the oldest women’s peace organization in the world. We work for feminist peace by strengthening women’s meaningful pa...

Network about preventing GBV in Africa

We are a vibrant network of activists and organizations working to prevent violence against women (VAW), united in our mission to uphold equality in our homes and communities. The Network is over 500 members strong, working in 18 different countries ...

Working Group on Women Peace and Security

The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security works to advance the Women, Peace and Security agenda at the United Nations and around the world.Since 2000 we have been working to bring the voices of women’s rights defenders and local peacebuilder...

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

UNODC on trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants

Center for Health and Gender Equity

The mission of CHANGE is to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights as a means to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls by shaping public discourse, elevating women’s voices, and influencing the United States Govern...

International Rescue Committee – GBV Responders` networ...

We advocate for and protect the rights of women and girls while cultivating conditions in which women and girls can recover from violence and thrive.

Womenaid International Caucasus

Is the recognised local partner organisation of WomenAid International, a UK based humanitarian aid and development agency that actively campaigns for human rights and the well-being of vulnerable groups.

Interagency Gender Working Group

A network comprising nongovernmental organizations, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), cooperating agencies, and the Bureau for Global Health of USAID.

IRIN Humanitarian News and Analysis Service

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs