Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: Displaced, refugee, and stateless women and girls in humanitarian emergencies, conflict settings, and natural disasters face extreme violence and threats, including— rape and sexual assault; domestic or intimate partner violence; child, early, and forced marriage; trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor; harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation or cutting; and harassment, exploitation, and abuse by humanitarian personnel.
Gender-based violence is known to increase during humanitarian emergencies. Violent acts such as intimate partner violence and child marriage that take place during times of stability are often exacerbated during times of crisis. Nearly one in five women report experiencing sexual violence during a humanitarian emergency. For example, according to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there was an increase of 56 percent in reported cases of conflict-related sexual violence between 2016 and 2017.
Intimate partner violence is pervasive and becomes increasingly common during times of conflict and crisis. Residence in a conflict-affected district is associated with a 50-percent increase in risk of intimate partner violence, and women who have experienced 4–5 cumulative years of conflict are almost 90 percent more likely to experience such violence than women who are not living in conflict settings. Child, early, and forced marriages increase during humanitarian crises as tools of last resort to cope with economic hardship and to protect girls from increased violence.
Conflict can exacerbate cultural norms of child, early, and forced marriage or create harmful cultural behaviors where they had not previously existed. Women and girls are especially vulnerable to trafficking during humanitarian crises, particularly by non-State armed groups who abduct and traffic women and girls for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and child, early, and forced marriage, among other forms of exploitation. Crises create markets for exploitative services that are too frequently abused by aid workers and peacekeepers, who seek sexual services from displaced or vulnerable people.
In 2018, the United Nations received a total of 148 sexual exploitation and abuse allegations directly involving United Nations aid workers, and 111 involving staff from partner organizations implementing United Nations programs. According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, marginalized populations are particularly at risk of gender-based violence in humanitarian crises, including adolescent girls, older persons, persons with disabilities, sexual and gender minorities, and female heads of households.
Gender-based violence is under-reported, both in times of stability and during crises. While data may not be immediately available in each crisis or conflict, evidence shows that gender-based violence is consistently a major and pressing concern for women and girls facing humanitarian emergency contexts and should be assumed to be a protection concern in all humanitarian planning and risk assessment. Men and boys play a critical role in preventing gender-based violence, and engaging them alongside women and girls in the transformation of gender roles that lead to increased rates of gender-based violence at the onset of emergencies leads to lasting results.
Survivors of gender-based violence and their families in humanitarian emergencies require immediate, life-saving assistance, including post-rape care or access to other comprehensive medical and psychosocial services, to address the physical, psychological, and social impacts of gender-based violence. They also require long-term support such as opportunities to earn livelihoods, build skills or receive an education, and access to justice and community-level reintegration. Early medical interventions after incidents of rape can help to prevent infections, HIV, and pregnancy.
Empowering women to assume leadership roles in delivering humanitarian response and meaningfully engaging local organizations, including women’s rights, humanitarian, advocacy, and service-provider organizations, through training and directed resources to operate in emergency settings and provide life-saving assistance is critical to supporting survivors or those at risk of gender-based violence. The international community has prioritized addressing the issue of gender-based violence in humanitarian contexts by launching a Global Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies in 2013, which the United States operationalized through establishing a Safe from the Start initiative, implemented by the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development.
Safe from the Start aimed to prevent and respond to gender-based violence at the onset of an emergency and to provide resources to strengthen the core capacity of humanitarian assistance implementers to address gender-based violence at the earliest phases of an emergency, including through developing training, guidelines, toolkits, and other resources to guide operations. The Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act ( Public Law 115–428 ) requires the United States to strive to eliminate gender-based violence and mitigate its harmful effects on individuals and communities in its development cooperation policy.
Recognizing the need to prevent and respond to gender-based violence globally, Congress has appropriated $150,000,000 annually from fiscal Years 2013–2019 for this purpose. The United States has further committed to prevention and response to gender-based violence globally through the interagency United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally, the National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, the U.S. Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls, U.S.
Strategy to Support Women and Girls at Risk from Extremism and Conflict, and the U.S. Government Strategy on Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity.
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Sec. 2
Findings
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