Health

Citation:

Ellman, Tom, Heather Culbert, and Victorio Torres-Feced. 2007. “Treatment of AIDS in Conflict-Affected Settings: A Failure of Imagination.” The Lancet 365 (9456): 278–80.

Authors: Tom Ellman , Heather Culbert , Victorio Torres-Feced

Topics: Armed Conflict, Health, HIV/AIDS Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Year: 2007

Citation:

Gingerich, Tara, and Jennifer Leaning. 2004. The Use of Rape as a Weapon of War in the Conflict in Darfur, Sudan. Boston: Harvard School of Public Health.

Authors: Tara Gingerich, Jennifer Leaning

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Health, Reproductive Health, Trauma, Humanitarian Assistance, Context-Appropriate Response to Trauma, International Law, Sexual Violence, Rape, Weapons /Arms Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Sudan

Year: 2004

Citation:

Beyrer, Chris. 1998. War in the Blood: Sex, Politics and AIDS in Southeast Asia. London: Zed Books.

Author: Chris Beyrer

Abstract:

This engaging and vivid book investigates the course of the HIV epidemic in seven countries of South East Asia: Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam and China’s Yunnan Province. Emphasising the impact of the cultural and political landscapes of these countries on the progress of the disease, the book is the product of both working and travelling in the area. Not merely a commentary on obfuscating government statistics, the author draws upon his encounters with people dealing with the effects of the epidemic and opponents of the regimes of the countries he describes. The epidemic is seen as being vitally linked to the general condition of human rights in the societies.

In the first part of the book the author travels to each country in turn chronicling the different approaches adopted to the epidemic. The second part covers issues involving specific groups at risk - among other topics, women and contraception, prostitution and the traffic in women, HIV and the US military, the Heroin trade, gay sex workers, prisoners, and the work of local activists. The third part of the book looks at policy and the general effect of culture on public health care, stressing the need for local empowerment of populations, and in particular women, to effect social changes that would go hand in hand with improvements in the handling of the HIV epidemic. Both passionate and well-informed, this book is a labour of love that discusses the HIV epidemic while giving an intimate, and ultimately celebratory account of South East Asia and asserting the real possiblity for affirmative action. (Amazon)

Topics: Governance, Health, HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Rights, Human Rights, Sexuality, Trafficking, Drug Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam

Year: 1998

Citation:

Sadler, A. G., B. M. Booth, D. Nielson, and B. N. Doebbeling. 2000. “Health-Related Consequences of Physical and Sexual Violence: Women in the Military.” Obstetrics & Gynecology 96 (3): 473–80.

Authors: A. G. Sadler , B. M. Booth, D. Nielson, B. N. Doebbeling

Abstract:

Objectives: To identify differences in health-related quality of life among women veterans who were raped, physically assaulted (not in the context of rape or domestic violence), both, or neither during military service.

Methods: We did a cross-sectional telephone survey of a national sample of 558 women veterans who served in Vietnam and subsequent eras of military service. A stratified survey design selected subjects according to era of service and location. The interview included socioeconomic information, lifetime violence history, the Women’s Military Environment Survey to assess women’s military experiences, and the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 to assess health-related quality of life.

Results: Five hundred thirty-seven women completed the interview. Half (48%) experienced violence during military service, including rape (30%), physical assault (35%), or both (16%). Women who were raped or dually victimized were more likely to report chronic health problems, prescription medication use for emotional problems, failure to complete college, and annual incomes less than $25,000 (P < .05). Women who were physically assaulted or raped reported significantly lower health-related quality of life (P < .05). Those who had both traumas reported the most severe impairment, comparable to women with chronic illnesses.

Conclusion: This study suggests that the sequelae of violence against women are an important public health concern. More than a decade after rape or physical assault during military service, women reported severely decreased health-related quality of life, with limitations of physical and emotional health, educational and financial attainment, and severe, recurrent problems with work and social activities.

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women, Violence

Year: 2000

Citation:

Birch, Kathryn. 2008. “If We Could Read and Hear Their Stories…Protection Strategies Employed by Victims of Sexual Violence: A Comparative Study of Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.” The Fletcher Journal of Human Security 23: 47-66.

Author: Kathryn Birch

Abstract:

Sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict societies is a security, public health, human rights issue, and "an act of aggression against a nation or community." The prevalence and severity of sexual violence as well as its subsequent health and socioeconomic consequences fundamentally change societies. Legal and social dimensions, such as women's second class status in the Congo and Liberia, actually support the use of rape and perpetuate its ruthless effects. While rape has been recognized as a war crime and a crime against humanity, very little is known about the protection strategies adopted by victims and their communities' and how these strategies impact society. The context in which the violence occurs and the protection strategies employed by different communities must be better understood in order to develop holistic and effective solutions for bringing justice to the perpetrators of sexual violence and the care of victims.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Gender, Women, Health, Mental Health, Reproductive Health, Trauma, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women, Violence Regions: Africa, Central Africa, West Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia

Year: 2008

Citation:

Friedman, Amy R. 1992. “Rape and Domestic Violence: The Experience of Refugee Women.” Women & Therapy 13 (1-2): 65–78. doi:10.1300/J015V13N01_07.

Author: Amy R. Friedman

Abstract:

Despite the fact that women and girls make up over half of the world's 18 million refugees, little attention or resources have been dedicated to meeting their needs. Although all refugees face health and protection problems, women are susceptible to additional problems as a result of their gender. Women and girls who flee their home countries to escape violence and persecution are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence. Rape is a common experience for refugee women, and the resulting trauma has life altering affects for both the women and their families. Often male refugees suffer from "heightened male vulnerability" as a reaction to witnessing torture, violence or rape. This, combined with the additional stress of resettlement in a new culture, often leads male refugees to resort to domestic violence as a way of reestablishing control and gaining power. Since refugee women are the pillars of their families, domestic violence and rape trauma present serious obstacles to the self-sufficiency of refugee families. It is the responsibility of health care providers in both the international community and in countries of resettlement to significantly address sexual violence and its repercussions on the successful resettlement of refugees.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Health, Trauma, International Organizations, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women

Year: 1992

Citation:

Lentin, Ronit. 1999. “The Rape of the Nation: Women Narrativising Genocide.” Sociological Research Online 4 (2): online.

Author: Ronit Lentin

Abstract:

In this article I will firstly argue that genocide and wars are gendered but also often feminised via the positioning of women not only as sexual trophies exchangeable between male enemies, not only as markers of collective boundaries, but also as the symbolic representations of national and ethnic collectivities. I will then interrogate the centrality of rape as a component of ethno-sexual identities and an instrument of war, focusing on the difficulties we have as women but also as social scientists, to theorise wartime rape. Finally I will propose that creating a forum for women war victims to narrativise their traumatic experiences is a vital feminist strategy of beginning to close the gap between genocide and gender and between trauma and the discourses available to narrate it.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Gender, Genocide, Health, Trauma, Sexual Violence, Rape

Year: 1999

Citation:

Brentlinger, Paula E., Hector Javier Sanchez-Perez, Marcos Arana Cedeno, Lic Guadalupe Vargas Morales, Miguel A. Hernan, Mark A. Micek, and Douglas Ford. 2005. “Pregnancy Outcomes, Site of Delivery, and Community Schisms in Regions Affected by the Armed Conflict in Chiapas, Mexico.” Social Science & Medicine 61: 1001-14.

Authors: Paula E. Brentlinger, Hector Javier Sanchez-Perez, Marcos Arana Cedeno, Lic Guadalupe Vargas Morales, Miguel A. Hernan, Mark A. Micek, Douglas Ford

Abstract:

The Zapatista armed conflict began in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, in 1994, and overlaps pre-existing local disputes about land, religion, and other issues. Related disruptions in access to and utilization of health services have been alleged to have compromised local health status, particularly in vulnerable subgroups such as indigenous women and infants. The study objective was to measure maternal and perinatal mortality ratios and utilization of pregnancy-related health services in the region affected by the Zapatista conflict, and to describe associations between these primary outcome measures, socioeconomic and demographic factors, and factors associated with inter-party and intra-community conflict. A cross-sectional, population-based survey was conducted in 46 communities in three regions. The study subjects were 1227 women, 13-49 years old, who had been pregnant during the preceding 2 years (1999-2001). Principal outcome measures were maternal and perinatal mortality, and site of delivery. Secondary analyses explored associations between primary outcomes and socioeconomic, demographic, and conflict-related factors. Most births (87.1%) occurred at home. The crude observed maternal and perinatal mortality ratios were 607/100,000 and 23.5/1000 live births, respectively. Those who died had difficulty accessing emergency obstetrical care. Both home birth and mortality were associated with descriptors of intra-community conflict. Observed maternal and perinatal mortality ratios were substantially higher than those officially reported for Mexico or Chiapas. Reduction of high reproductive mortality ratios will require attention to socioeconomic and conflict-related problems, in addition to improved access to emergency obstetrical services.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Health, Reproductive Health, Indigenous Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2005

Citation:

Schreck, Laurel. 2000. “Turning Point: A Special Report on the Refugee Reproductive Health Field.” International Family Planning Perspectives 26 (4): 162–66.

Author: Laurel Schreck

Abstract:

Focuses on the efforts to improve the delivery of reproductive health services to refugees worldwide. Adoption by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees of its Policy for Refugee Women in 1990; Heightened awareness in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; Role of donors and nongovernmental organizations in meeting the refugees' reproductive health needs. (EBSCO)

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Health, Reproductive Health, International Organizations, Sexual Violence, Rape

Year: 2000

Citation:

Omarjee, Nadira. 2008. “Conflicts, Gender-Based Violence and the Ramifications for HIV and AIDS.” South African Review of Sociology 39 (1): 51-64.

Author: Nadira Omarjee

Abstract:

This article attempts to contextualise gender-based violence in relation to conflicts with special mention to conflicts on the African continent. Gender-based violence is framed within the oedipal complex of the dominance and submission model whereby dominance is asserted through violence. This model is also used to frame the context of conflicts as a masculine construction. Furthermore, the article highlights the causes and consequences of gender-based violence with regard to responses for psychosocial and medical treatment in the restoration and rehabilitation of post-conflict societies. Gender-based violence in the context of conflicts has serious ramifications for HIV and AIDS. Incubation periods for the HI virus are decreased when it is coupled together with psychosocial trauma and malnutrition. Therefore, gender-based violence and HIV and AIDS have serious implications in the context of conflicts due to adequate responses in the absence of rule of law and infrastructure to mete out treatment.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Health, HIV/AIDS Regions: Africa

Year: 2008