We meet four inspiring women in Right On Podcast 3: Is violence against women (including trans women) on the rise? — speaking to you from Kenya to Bangkok to New York City. Here’s a bit more about them and their work. The conversation was hosted by Meg Davis in Geneva. Continue reading
Tina Alai (Kenyan human rights lawyer), Karyn Kaplan (Asia Catalyst), Margaret Mbira Omondi (Women Concerns Center, Kenya) and Prem Pramoj Na Ayutthaya (Rainbow Sky Association, Thailand) meet online to compare notes on how COVID-19 is fueling violence against women, from girls in evacuation camps in rural Kisumu, Kenya, to transgender women isolated in lockdown in urban Bangkok, Thailand. They found some surprising commonalities. Community-based activists and human rights advocates like themselves are putting marginalized communities at the center of their work, and finding ways to work together, using international human rights standards, to find a way out of this crisis.
It’s really an honor to moderate this upcoming panel discussion: Justice denied? Access to justice for victims of sexual violence on September 11, 2019 at the ICRC Humanitarium. The event is free and open to all. Continue reading
Copyright Sara Davis
March 18 – 22, 2019, GENEVA
September 9 -13. 2019, GENEVA
November 25- 29, 2019, ENTEBBE, UGANDA
We are pleased to announce the 2019 dates for the CERAH (Geneva Center for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action) much-in-demand one-week short course on sexual violence in conflicts and emergencies. Combining cutting-edge research and practical experience from experts in the field, the course is tailored to emergency program managers, and one of the few courses to address male and female survivors of sexual violence. Participants in the Uganda session meet with activists from the Refugee Law Project to hear about their experiences first-hand. Continue reading
Conflicts around the world are fueling sexual violence against men, women and children. It was an honor to moderate this roundtable at ICRC’s Humanitarium in Geneva on September 10th, with a group of experts who are working in these crises to advocate for, and support the rights of migrants and refugees who experience sexual violence.
Peter Maurer, president of ICRC, gave opening remarks. The panelists included Hillary Margolis (Human Rights Watch), Fouzia Bara (Médécins Sans Frontières), Alexandra MacDowall (UNHCR), and Sophie Sutrich (ICRC). The conversation was enriched by interventions from Karla Avelar and Chris Dolan in the audience, speaking to the challenges faced by male survivors and LGBT survivors in accessing services. Doris Schopper (CERAH) wrapped up the discussion.
A full video of the discussion is online here: https://www.icrc.org/en/event/sexual-violence-against-migrants-time-action
Sky Bridge, Kingdom Center in downtown Riyadh © Davis 2018
In February, I gave a talk about the course I teach on sexual violence at the first Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum. I’ve been remembering that trip since learning of the recent arrest of women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia.
Zainab Bangura, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Photo: FCO
The new special issue of Global Health Governance has several articles that chart the gaps in human rights and global health governance. I co-authored this one, with Doris Schopper and Julia Epps, on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) indicators used by humanitarian organizations to track interventions that respond to sexual violence in conflict settings. We compared indicators used by leading humanitarian organizations for programs that provide medical care, mental health care/psychosocial support, and legal aid to survivors. Continue reading
Mogi Wokorach, Refugee Law Project
I’m pleased to share the 2018 dates for Geneva Center for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action (CERAH)’s much-in-demand short courses on sexual violence in conflicts and emergencies. I coordinate the courses, with speakers from the Red Cross, Médécins Sans Frontières, UN and more.
Combining cutting-edge research and practical experience from experts in the field, the course is tailored to emergency program managers, and one of the few courses to address male and female survivors of sexual violence. Participants in the Uganda session meet with activists from the Refugee Law Project to hear about their experiences first-hand.
For the past year, I’ve been coordinating a series of short courses on sexual violence in conflicts and emergencies. There is a profound stigma around the issue, so I’m pleasantly surprised if you even click on this link and keep reading. If you do, you’ve taken the first step, breaking the internal stigma that makes addressing the problem so difficult.
Sara (Meg) Davis 