Yet, women’s exclusion from conflict prevention efforts, post-conflict transition and reconstruction processes have been matters of concern for the international community. Post-conflict situations and reforms can be viewed as an opportunity for transformation of the societal structures and norms in place before the conflict in order to ensure greater enjoyment of women’s human rights. They have historically had and continue to have a role as combatants, as part of organized civil society, as human rights defenders, as members of resistance movements and as active agents in both formal and informal peacebuilding and recovery processes. Women and girls should not only be seen as victims of conflict and instability.
Women participation in peacebuilding and recovery Internally displaced women and girls are also often excluded from decision-making processes. Internally displaced women often have no access to adequate reproductive health care services and responses and can experience violence and abuse, sexual and labour exploitation, trafficking in persons, forced recruitment and abduction. Loss of housing and land can also affect women disproportionally, due for example to the absence of property titles. Other major human rights concerns include inequitable access to assistance, education and training. They may for example not be able to practice their livelihoods due to loss of land and livestock. Internally displaced women can be disproportionately affected by the loss of livelihoods during displacement. Specific gender dimensions of internal displacement Women are also forced to look for alternative sources of livelihood, as family survival comes to depend heavily on them.Īccess to essential services such as health care, including sexual and reproductive health services can be disrupted, with women and girls being at a greater risk of unplanned pregnancy, maternal mortality and morbidity, severe sexual and reproductive injuries and contracting sexually transmitted infections, including as a result of conflict-related sexual violence.
Girls can face additional obstacles in accessing education. These barriers are due to fear of targeted attacks and threats against them, and to the additional caregiving and household responsibilities that girls are often obliged to assume. The lack of delivery of essential services to the population experienced during conflict and situations of strife and instability can have a disproportionate impact on specific groups of the population, including women and girls-again, often building on pre-existing situations of discrimination. Trafficking is also exacerbated during and after conflict owing to the breakdown of political, economic and social structures, high levels of violence and increased militarism. Gender-based violence also spikes in post-conflict societies, due to the general break down of the rule of law, the availability of small arms, the breakdown of social and family structures and the “normalization” of gender-based violence as an additional element of pre-existing discrimination. While women and girls are in general more predominantly subject of sexual violence, men and boys have also been victims of sexual violence, especially in contexts of detention. Women and girls are primarily and increasingly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war. Heightened gender-based violence in conflict and post-conflict zonesĬonflict can result in higher levels of gender-based violence against women and girls, including arbitrary killings, torture, sexual violence and forced marriage.
Conflicts and situations of instability exacerbate pre-existing patterns of discrimination against women and girls, exposing them to heightened risks of violations of their human rights.