In their own words
Josephine was eight years old when both her parents died. Left alone, she learned to fend for herself in the hills 20 km from Makamba, a city in southern Burundi. One night her neighbour, a former soldier, crept into her…
Addressing sexual violence in post-conflict Burundi
Alarm about the high incidence of sexual violence against Burundian women was first sounded during the 1993-2003 civil war when large numbers of rebels and Burundian armed forces occupied villages and towns. Peace accords were finally signed in 2003, and…
Creating safe spaces: lessons from South Africa and Burundi
South Africa has one of the highest incidences of rape in the world. It is estimated that one person is raped every 26 seconds. In Khayelitsha, a township of around 500,000 people close to Cape Town, the incidence of rape…
Uganda: early marriage as a form of sexual violence
Uganda currently hosts at least 230,000 refugees, the vast majority of them southern Sudanese. With very few exceptions, only refugees living within designated settlements are officially recognised and offered protection and assistance. Refugees receive seeds, tools and small plots of…
Establishing services in post-conflict Sierra Leone
During Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war – which ended in 2001 – there was a high incidence of sexual assault against women and young girls.1 Return of peace has not meant that women and girls are safe from sexual assault.…
Trauma response and prevention: precondition for peace and justice
During the war in Bosnia, thousands of women were raped. Medica mondiale was founded in 1993 to respond to their urgent need for protection and support – and now also works with women in Albania, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Liberia, Iraq, India,…
Time to end violence against Palestinian women and girls
A report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented how cases of violence ranging from spousal and child abuse to rape, incest and murders committed under the guise of family ‘honour’ often go unreported and unpunished. Discriminatory criminal legislation in…
Involving men on the Thai-Burma border
It has long been recognised that to fully address the issue of GBV, both prevention and response activities must be in place. What has only been more recently acknowledged is that active male engagement is fundamental to successful GBV prevention…
Demobilisation of female ex-combatants in Colombia
For several decades Colombia has been fought over by legal and illegal armed actors – the Colombian armed forces, right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerrillas. Negotiations between the Colombian government and the right-wing Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – a federation of…
Justice for survivors in Peru
Manta is an isolated rural community in Huancavelica, a poor Andean region of Peru. According to the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR) Final Report,1 Manta endured systematic sexual violence during the 1980-2000 insurgency led by Sendero Luminoso (a Maoist…