Gender-based violence (GBV)
Nowhere to turn: failure to protect, support and assure justice for Darfuri women
Protecting refugee women in Darfur from sexual assult
Authors:
Publisher:
Physicians for Human Rights, 2009
It is over five years since many refugee women and their families them fled their burned villages, ransacked homes and ruined fields in Chad and streamed across the Sudan border. This report amplifies the voices of some 88 women in the Farchana refugee camp. They spoke to the authors about the sexual assaults visited upon them both in Darfur and in the refugee camps in Chad, and about their lives and difficulties in the camp. The report reveals the profound stigma and physical violence to which many women have been subjected as a result of sexual assault. It portrays the tenacity and courage of these women who have protested gender discrimination and violence in a declaration they wrote proclaiming their lack of freedoms entitled the “Farchana Manifesto,”
The authors indicate that comprehensive justice for these survivors most certainly includes holding al-Bashir’s regime accountable. But it must also entail a commitment by the international community to protect these women from sexual assault now, and to effectively care for those who have already been victimized. The authors argue that the findings in this report should work to compel a just solution to the crisis in Sudan that allows these survivors to return home. Three major areas in which important measures could be taken to improve the lives of the women affected by sexual violence and displacement:
- prevention and protection
- justice and accountability
- support to survivors
Above all the authors stress that the refugees should be allowed to return home in safety and peace.
