ALSO SURVIVORS: THE NEED FOR MORE GENDER INCLUSIVE HUMANITARIAN SERVICE PROVISION FOR MEN, BOYS, AND SSOGI SURVIVORS OF SGBV
Towards addressing the suffering of all, and to upholding the humanitarian mandates of neutrality and impartiality, more gender inclusive services must be provided for all victims of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
Current humanitarian thinking rightfully acknowledges women and girls as survivors of SGBV, but often overlooks male survivors and their vulnerabilities, as well as survivors who are of diverse sex, sexual orientations, and gender identities (SSOGI). All forms of SGBV against men and boys and SSOGI need to be better understood and addressed in a way that is both conflict and context sensitive, in cooperation with local service providers.
Programming, guidelines, tools, and methodologies for SGBV must use inclusive language and consider different SGBV experiences. This view is indebted to and acknowledges decades of feminist research that highlights the reality of SGBV, and places emphasis on the need to ensure that raising the profile of men and boys and SSOGI individuals as survivors of SGBV does not detract from already underfunded SGBV programs for women and girls.
Across the humanitarian aid sector, women and girls, especially in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and other Muslim-majority countries, have historically been perceived by donors and humanitarian aid agencies as uniquely vulnerable. As such, attention is given particularly to women’s empowerment and gender equality interventions. Mainstream humanitarian discussions about gender, in general, or SGBV specifically, often only reference women and girls.
Existing research and programming then engages, screens, and addresses women and girls and uses female centered understandings of SGBV. Men, and to a lesser extent boys, are conversely not perceived to be vulnerable in this way. Rather, men are often seen as either potential perpetrators of SGBV, allies in the fight to prevent it and promote gender equality, or obstacles to the latter. Rarely are men and boys treated as survivors, nor are efforts made to understand how their gendered subjectivities are impacted due to conflict, humanitarian crises response, and humanitarian governance.
Evidence from the field, including Iraq, highlights this dynamic as well as the fact that men, boys, and SSOGI individuals do have experiences of SGBV; capturing this information requires different, more robust, and creative approaches than currently taken. Read more via Social Inquiry