This document discusses sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and the role of social workers in preventing it. It notes that SGBV violates human rights and dignity. It has been both a cause and consequence of displacement. The document defines different forms of gender-based violence and lists some of the main causes, including harmful gender norms, food insecurity, war and conflict. It outlines the role of health care providers, victim assistance services, community networks, and legal responses in addressing SGBV. Effective prevention strategies include increasing women's political participation, economic empowerment, and sexual/reproductive health and rights.

1. CHAPTER THREE
SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED
VIOLENCE (SGBV)

2. SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
(SGBV)
SGBV is a violation of human rights. It denies the
human dignity of the individual and hurts human
development. SGBV is largely rooted in individual
attitudes that condone violence within the family,
the community and the State.
SGBV has been both a cause of forced
displacement and a terrible consequence of the
breakdown of family and community structures
that accompanies displacement. It has also been
perpetrated by some of the very people who have
been entrusted with the task of protecting refugees
and displaced persons.

3. Gender-based violence (GBV)
Gender-based violence (GBV) is violence that is
directed at an individual based on his or her
biological sex OR gender identity. It includes
physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, and
psychological abuse, threats, coercion, and
economic or educational deprivation, whether
occurring in public or private life.

4. FORMS OF VIOLENCE
 Gender-based violence is enacted under many
different manifestations, from its most widespread
form, intimate partner violence, to acts of violence
carried out in online spaces. These different forms
are not mutually exclusive and multiple incidences
of violence can be happening at once and
reinforcing each other. Inequalities experienced by
a person related to their race, (dis)ability, age,
social class, religion, sexuality can also drive acts
of violence. This means that while women face
violence and discrimination based on gender,
some women experience multiple and interlocking
forms of violence.

5. Cont.
 Physical violence
 Any act which causes physical harm as a result
of unlawful physical force. Physical violence can
take the form of, among others, serious and
minor assault, deprivation of liberty and
manslaughter.

6. Cont.
 Sexual violence
Any sexual act perfomed on an individual
without their consent. Sexual violence can
take the form of rape or sexual assault.
 Psychological violence
Any act which causes psychological harm to an
individual. Pyschological violence can take the
form of, for example, coercion, defamation, verbal
insult or harassment

7. Cont.
 Economic violence
Any act or behaviour which causes economic
harm to an individual. Economic violence can
take the form of, for example, property
damage, restricting access to financial
resources, education or the labour market, or
not complying with economic responsibilities,
such as alimony.

8. VIOLENCE
CAUSES OF GENDER BASED
VIOLENCE
 HARMFUL GENDER NORMS
Gender stereotypes and are often used to justify
violence against women. Cultural norms often
dictate that men are aggressive, controlling, and
dominant, while women are docile, subservient,
and rely on men as providers. These norms can
foster a culture of abuse outright, such as early
and forced marriage or female genital mutilation,
the latter spurred by outdated and harmful notions
of female sexuality and virginity.

9. HUNGER
 Just as empowering women can help eliminate
hunger, food scarcity also leads to increased gender-
based violence. In Somalia , where a 2016 survey
revealed that 61% of women and girls said they had
experienced sexual violence and 64% had
experienced physical violence, an ongoing food crisis
only worsened the situation.
 Women and girls face more early and forced
marriages as families seek dowry payments and try to
reduce their food bill. Women may have to sell sex to
survive, and money shortages increase tensions
within families, which can lead to violence. Though
Malawi’s new Marriage Act increases the legal
minimum age for marriage to 18, that’s not always
what happens in practice.

10. WAR AND CONFLICT
During displacement, women may experience not
only sexual exploitation and abuse, but also
gendered denial of access to basic services. On
return, women face challenges that are
conditioned by social roles, and their status as
mothers, widows, property owners or survivors of
violence. These risks are all compounded by
intersecting inequalities and vulnerabilities.

11. THE ROLE OF THE SOCIAL WORKER TO
PREVENT (GBV)
 Health Care - Training health care providers to
recognize and respond to gender-based violence
is one of the most important ways of identifying
and assisting victims. Not just obstetrician/
gynecologists but all health care professionals
must learn to recognize the signs: hospitals
(especially emergency room staff); public and
private health clinic staff; general/family
practitioners; internists; pediatricians;
psychiatrists; nurses and the staff of family
planning clinics.

12. Cont.
 Victim Assistance Services - These are
services created or incorporated to respond to
gender-based violence, such as: battered women
shelters; homeless shelters; financial assistance
programs; women's police stations or services;
victim advocacy programs; rape crisis, domestic
violence and suicide prevention hotlines; legal
services; runaway programs; social welfare
programs; psychological support services
(including individual counselling and support
groups) and teen sexuality programs/health

13. Community Networks and Interventions - A
number of studies have shown that involving
entire communities in recognizing, addressing and
working to prevent GBV is one of the surest ways
of eliminating it.
To be optimally effective, community networks
must bring together all of the responses outlined
above, integrating members from all sectors of the
community: families; businesses; advocacy
groups/civil society; public services such as
police, and medical examiners

14. Cont.
Legal Responses - The criminalization of all forms of
GBV - domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment,
psychological violence etc. has been an important
step in eliminating it. What remains is the consistent
application of these laws, the implemetation of
penalties, and a greater focus on rehabilitating
convicted perpetrators.
Other legal responses to GBV have included: legal
aid services; training of police and judicial personnel;
women's police stations; legal advocacy and lobbying;
training of family, criminal, immigration and juvenile
court lawyers and bar association advocacy.

15. Effective Strategies to End
GBV
 Efforts to increase women’s political
participation and influence in contexts of peace,
conflicts and other humanitarian crisis. Women
have rights to participate on equal terms with
men in political bodies at all levels of the society,
including in peace processes. In many countries
women’s political representation is very low, and
women are often excluded from formal peace
negotiations. This has evastating consequences
for the possibility to reach a sustainable
development, peace and human security.

16. Cont.
 Efforts to increase women’s economic
empowerment that enhance women’s bargaining
power and ability to leave abusive relationships.
This includes strengthening women’s
entrepreneurship and employment opportunities,
improving women’s access to land and property
rights, promoting equal sharing of unpaid care
work between women and men and encouraging
universal access to quality education

17. Cont.
forts to increase sexual and reproductive health
and rights are crucial for preventing GBV given the
close relationship between the two. Such efforts
include promotion and protection of women’s right
to have control and decide freely over matters
related to their sexuality

18. END