Girls

Citation:

Probst, Evelyn, and Isabella Chen. 2020. “Trafficking in Human Beings as a Consequence of Vulnerabilities in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations: The Case of Austria.” In Women in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations: An Anthology of Cases from Iraq, Iran, Syria and Other Countries, edited by S. Behnaz Hosseini, 159-78. Vienna: LIT Verlag.

Authors: Evelyn Probst, Isabella Chen

Abstract:

This paper discusses the link between vulnerabilities enhanced by conflict and post-conflict situations and human trafficking from a gender perspective. By applying a feminist view, we will explore the vulnerability paradigm and the implications on anti-trafficking measures. Moreover, this paper will offer case studies from the working experience of the Austrian recognizing victims protection facility LEFO - Intervention Centre for Trafficked Women and Girls to outline women’s experiences and specific situations, drawn from practice. Lastly, as this paper shows, the focus should be on human and women’s rights when talking about how to combat human trafficking effectively. The goal of this paper is to show the complexity of vulnerability. It is important to note that recognizing vulnerabilities does not mean to deny a person’s agency. Furthermore, we explore the danger and implications of (re)producing stereotypes by illustrating vulnerabilities as inherent to a person.

Topics: Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Girls, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Trafficking, Human Trafficking Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Austria

Year: 2020

Citation:

Banwell, Stacy. 2018. “Forced Prostitution: Unpacking the Links between Globalization, Neo-liberalism, and the Illicit Sex Trade.” Paper presented at Prostitution, Pimping and Trafficking, Conway Hall, London, September 5.

Author: Stacy Banwell

Abstract:

Transnational feminism attributes women’s social, political and economic marginalization to capitalism, class exploitation, neo-imperialism and neo-liberalism. It addresses the local and global contexts in which violence against women and girls occurs. Allied to this is the political economy approach. This approach addresses the relationship between the economic, the social and the political. Moving beyond direct acts of physical violence - by addressing structural forms of inequality and violence - the political economy approach broadens what is meant by violence and abuse. Accordingly, forced prostitution - resulting from a lack of employment opportunities - is considered a form of structural violence. Drawing on both of these perspectives, and focusing on Iraq and Syria, Dr Banwell examines how globalization and neo-liberalism impact the day-to-day lives of women and girls in war-shattered economies. The talk will conclude with some thoughts on what is being done to address gender-based violence and what measures can be taken to achieve gender equality in post-conflict situations.

Topics: Economies, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Globalization, Political Economies, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, SV against Women, Violence Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq, Syria

Year: 2018

Citation:

Rivillas, Juan Carlos, Raul Devia Rodriguez, Gloria Song, and Andréanne Martel. 2018. "How Do We Reach the Girls and Women Who Are the Hardest to Reach? Inequitable Opportunities in Reproductive and Maternal Health Care Services in Armed Conflict and Forced Displacement Settings in Colombia." PLoS ONE 13 (1): 1-14. 

Authors: Juan Carlos Rivillas, Raul Devia Rodriguez, Gloria Song, Andréanne Martel

Abstract:

Objectives

This paper assesses inequalities in access to reproductive and maternal health services among females affected by forced displacement and sexual and gender-based violence in conflict settings in Colombia. This was accomplished through the following approaches: first, we assessed the gaps and gradients in three selected reproductive and maternal health care services. Second, we analyzed the patterns of inequalities in reproductive and maternal health care services and changes over time. And finally, we identified challenges and strategies for reaching girls and women who are the hardest to reach in conflict settings, in order to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage and to contribute to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals of good health and well-being and gender equality by 2030.

Methods

Three types of data were required: data about health outcomes (relating to rates of females affected by conflict), information about reproductive and maternal health care services to provide a social dimension to unmask inequalities (unmet needs in family planning, antenatal care and skilled births attendance); and data on the female population. Data sources used include the National Information System for Social Protection, the National Registry of Victims, the National Administrative Department of Statistics, and Demographic Health Survey at three specific time points: 2005, 2010 and 2015. We estimated the slope index of inequality to express absolute inequality (gaps) and the concentration index to expresses relative inequality (gradients), and to understand whether inequality was eliminated over time.

Results

Our findings show that even though absolute health care service-related inequalities dropped over time, relative inequalities worsened or remain unchanged. All summary measures still indicated the existence of inequalities as well as common patterns. Our findings suggest that there is a pattern of marginal exclusion and incremental patterns of inequality in the reproductive and maternal health care service provided to female affected by armed conflict.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Forced Migration, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health, Reproductive Health, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2018

Citation:

Tanyag, Maria. 2018. "Resilience, Female Altruism, and Bodily Autonomy: Disaster-Induced Displacement in Post-Haiyan Philippines." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 43 (3): 563-85.

Author: Maria Tanyag

Abstract:

Natural disasters are increasingly causing displacements globally, and such negative impacts of climate change are expected to increase exponentially. Women and girls in particular distinctly endure long-term or gradual harms while in displacement, such as heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence, including exposure to sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, and forced or unwanted pregnancies. This article examines the Philippines as a case study to unveil the growing gendered security threats embodied by disaster-induced displacements. In the aftermath of the disaster caused by supertyphoon Haiyan, which struck in November 2013, the mantra of developing a “disaster-resilient nation” has gained currency among national and international actors in the country. Building on critical feminist political economy analysis, this article argues that the Haiyan postdisaster relief and reconstruction efforts constitute gendered processes that intimately rely on and mobilize women’s unremunerated social reproductive labor, particularly through their role as primary caregivers. Data for this research is drawn from twenty-six interviews with key informants and from secondary sources such as official reports of governmental, nongovernmental, and international humanitarian organizations. The findings underscore the importance of deploying a feminist lens to critique the material and discursive power of “resilience” through which norms of female altruism are harnessed at household and community levels while postdisaster responsibilities are increasingly diverted away from the state. In so doing, resilience discourses may serve to reinforce the structural roots of gendered vulnerability, including political, cultural, and economic barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health services and supplies—thereby undermining bodily autonomy.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Climate Displacement, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Women, Girls, Health, HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, Sexual Violence, SV against Women Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2018

Citation:

Authors: Céline Nauges, Jon Strand

Abstract:

In large parts of the world, a lack of home tap water burdens households as the water must be brought to the house from outside, at great expense in terms of effort and time. We here study how such costs affect girls’ schooling in Ghana, with an analysis based on four rounds of the Demographic and Health Surveys. We address potential endogeneity issues by building an artificial panel of clusters using GPS coordinates. Our results indicate a significant negative relation between girls’ school attendance and water hauling activity, as a halving of water fetching times increases girls’ school attendance by about 7 percentage points on average, with stronger impacts in rural communities. Our results seem to be the first definitive documentation of such a relationship in Sub-Saharan Africa. They document some of the multiple and wide population benefits of increased tap water access, that are likely to be relevant in many African countries, and elsewhere.

Keywords: Household water access, panel data, school attendance, Sub-Saharan Africa

Topics: Education, Gender, Girls, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2017

Citation:

Seck, Sara L., and Penelope Simons. 2019. "Resource Extraction and the Human Rights of Women and Girls." Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 31 (1): i-vii. 

Authors: Sara L. Seck, Penelope Simons

Annotation:

Topics: Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender Roles, Rights, Human Rights

Year: 2019

Citation:

Swaine, Aisling, Michelle Spearing, Maureen Murphy, and Manuel Contreras-Urbina. 2019. "Exploring the Intersection of Violence Against Women and Girls With Post-Conflict Statebuilding and Peacebuilding Processes: A New Analytical Framework." Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 14 (1): 3-21.

Authors: Aisling Swaine, Michelle Spearing, Maureen Murphy, Manuel Contreras-Urbina

Abstract:

Conflict-related violence against women and girls (VAWG) has drawn increasing attention, yet scholars, policymakers, and practitioners focussed on conflict-related VAWG and those focussed on post-conflict statebuilding and peacebuilding have largely worked separately. Less attention has been given to VAWG during post-conflict transitions than during conflict itself. This article makes three major contributions to guide researchers and policymakers in addressing VAWG in post-conflict contexts. First, it identifies critical gaps in understanding the intersection between VAWG and post-conflict statebuilding and peacebuilding processes. Second, it presents an ecological model to explore the drivers of VAWG during and after armed conflict. Third, it proposes a conceptual framework for analysing and addressing the intersections of VAWG with both post-conflict statebuilding and peacebuilding. The article concludes that application of this framework can help policymakers shape statebuilding and peacebuilding processes to more effectively institutionalise approaches to VAWG so that post-conflict transitions advance sustainable, positive peace.

Keywords: conflict, ecological model, gender-based violence, peacebuilding, post-conflict, transition, statebuilding, violence against women and girls (VAWG), positive peace

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Conflict, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Year: 2019

Citation:

George, Abosede. 2018. "Saving Nigerian Girls: A Critical Reflection on Girl-Saving Campaigns in the Colonial and Neoliberal Eras." Meridians 17 (2): 309-24.

Author: Abosede George

Abstract:

This essay discusses girl-saving campaigns in Nigerian history, focusing on the two that have been most extensively documented: the girl hawker project of the early twentieth century, which climaxed with the 1943 passage of the first hawking ban in Nigeria, and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, which started in 2014 and is still ongoing. Though separated by time and space, in order to inspire salvationist impulses in their respective audiences both campaigns have relied on a gendered notion of imperilment that centers the image of the youthful female body threatened by sexual violence from male aggressors. Yet through its reliance on certain restrictions, gendered and otherwise, the portrait of the vulnerable girl that campaigners outline inadvertently prompts disidentifications as well.

Topics: Age, Youth, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Girls, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, SV against Women Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2018

Citation:

Williams, Sarah, and Jasmine Opdam. 2017. “The Unrealised Potential for Transformative Reparations for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Sierra Leone.” The International Journal of Human Rights 21 (9): 1281–301.

Authors: Sarah Williams, Jasmine Opdam

Abstract:

The conflict in Sierra Leone was known for the scope and severity of atrocities targeted at civilians, including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) mainly perpetrated against women and girls. Post-conflict initiatives included the establishment of a hybrid criminal tribunal, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), and a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC). However, neither possessed a mandate for reparations to victims, yet both have made some contribution to tranformation. The judgments and processes of the SCSL have provided a measure of recognition to victims of SGBV. The TRC was required to to pay special attention to the experiences of women and girls in respect of sexual violence and structural inequality. It also interpreted its mandate broadly, in particular to making general recommendations as to the position of women and girls, as well as more specific recommendations as to reparations projects. These recommendations addressed three aspects of gender justice based on Fraser (recognition, representation and redistribution) and offered considerable scope for transformative reparations for victims of SGBV, including through structural, legal and social changes intended to guarantee the non-repetition of sexual violence. However, this article argues that although several of the TRC’s recommendations had transformative potential, much of this potential has not been realised due to the failure of the government to implement those recommendations.

Keywords: Sierra Leone, reparations, truth commission, sexual and gender-based violence

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Justice, Reparations, TRCs, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Sexual Violence, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2017