Conflict Increases Violence Against Women
Armed conflict devastates entire societies - it tears apart families and communities, increases disease and hunger, and spreads homelessness and extreme poverty. During and after these conflicts, women and children suffer the most.

 

Reports from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Darfur, Chad, Uganda, Kenya and Colombia, show not only that violence against women and children, particularly sexual violence, increases dramatically in conflict situations but also that it increases women’s poverty. As their family members and neighbors are killed or kidnapped, more and more women are forced to become the sole head of household bearing full economic responsibility for their children, elders, extended family, and, in many cases, orphans of friends. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, where armed conflict has resulted in thousands of rapes,  it is estimated that 60 to 80 percent of women have become single heads of households due to the conflict.

 

The diplomatic community can prevent sexual violence and the extreme suffering poverty it creates. By responding more quickly to outbreaks of violence against women and investing in women's economic opportunity, we can empower women in places like Congo, Darfur, Chad, Uganda, Kenya and Colombia to escape, recover from, and succeed in spite of the bloody conflicts that disrupt their lives. The International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA), now before the U.S. Congress, would require the U.S. goverment to do exactly that. Click here to call on Congress to pass the IVAWA.

 

 

On April 1, 2008 Women Thrive Worldwide submitted testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law on the importance of addressing the problem of violence against women in crisis situations. In her testimony, Ritu Sharma Fox, Women Thrive's President and Co-Founder, explained how investing in women's economic opportunity reduces and prevents violence and how the IVAWA would address the problem of rape in armed conflicts in these ways:

 

• Prevention through Economic Opportunity and Support: The IVAWA would provide funding, programmatic support and capacity building that would focus on both prevention, such as economic opportunity programs and public education campaigns to change attitudes, and intervention services such as health care for women who have been raped and may become infected with HIV/AIDS.
  
  

• Legal Reform: In addition, funding would assist locally led efforts to reform legal and cultural practices such as those that allow rape or forbid women from having their own money to feed themselves and their children. 
  
  

• Training for Officials to Respond to and Take Rape Seriously: The IVAWA would also train military and police forces to better respond to violence against women so that when women report violence they won’t be ignored, laughed at or further victimized.
  
  

• Diplomatic and Humanitarian Accountability: In crisis situations, the IVAWA focuses on expanding and coordinating overseas disaster assistance and funding for humanitarian programs to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls, including developing emergency measures to respond to critical outbreaks such as mass rape in armed conflict like in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It would also decreases potential sexual exploitation and abuse by humanitarian workers, military and police by creating more accountability through reporting mechanisms and training.