Strategy for preventing and tackling sexual violence
Back to: Gender based violence in the context of forced migrations
UNHCR has defined a 3-year strategy (2017-2019) promoting fair and effective access to mechanisms designed to prevent and tackle sexual and gender based violence and to extend the prospects of safe integration for asylum seekers, refugees and other persons who come under the UNHCR mandate in conditions of risk in Italy.
The overall purpose of the strategy is to reduce the risks and mitigate the consequences of sexual and gender based violence suffered by women, men, boys and girls, through a coordinated response mechanism based on a multi-sectorial approach focused on the person who has survived the violence, and on providing fair, non-discriminatory access to the services available to citizens.
Key Objectives1
- to reinforce the coordination, governance and partnerships regarding the prevention and tackling of sexual and gender based violence;
- to empower the response mechanisms to sexual and gender based violence, including the effective identification of these, the creation of a multi-sectorial response and the regulated referral of those who have survived sexual and gender based violence to the services, in every phase: during the rescue operations, the reception phase and asylum seeking procedure, and the processes implemented to achieve lasting solutions;
- to reinforce the measures implemented to prevent sexual and gender based violence during the rescue operations, upon landing, in the reception centres, during the asylum seeking procedure, and the processes implemented to achieve lasting solutions;
- to reinforce the protective and preventive measures offered to (potential) victims of human trafficking;
- to foster an integrated and transversal approach (mainstreaming) to the preventive measures and those implemented to tackle sexual and gender based violence;
- to maximise the involvement of the communities and the adoption of a participatory approach that involves people with respect for age, gender and diversity.
Example of how a dedicated reception procedure is structured
- Sensitive and confidential first meeting, preferably in the presence of a female interpreter and cultural mediator
- Creating a safe place in which to communicate and establish a relationship and a process of recovery
- Mapping the available local services and professionals: indicating useful numbers and contacts, finding specific local and regional programmes
- Transversal activities and work teams
Reception procedure for migrant women arriving by sea and other forced migration routes
- Arrival in the facility and re-establishment of a sense of personal safety
- Information about asylum seeking and article 18 (if signs of trafficking are present)
- Initial medical examinations (mandatory screenings and those recommended by GP)
- Interviews: preferably in the presence of a female mediator
- Accompaniment to the Questura (Police headquarters) and specific legal support for the target
- Accompaniment and education about accessing local services
- Italian languages courses
- Professional training where possible
The role of girls and women in the reception process
- Compliance with the rules and contract of reception
- Compliance with the rules set forth by the asylum seeking procedure
- Definition of personal goals and individual pathway to autonomy
Criteria for the provision of adequate support to the girls and women included in the project, considering
- Country of origin, age, personal history
- Health
- Presence of children or pregnancy
- Violence suffered (in the country of origin, transit, during the sea crossing)
- Violence in the country of arrival:
- Level of dependency and submission (status of documents, knowledge of the language, level of education, personal/family isolation)
- trafficking
- institutional violence
- domestic violence
Risks for reception operators
- Labelling as victims people who demonstrate fragility and contradictions and decide to return to their original situation – consider the person as an individual with her own story rather than “restricting” her by labelling her as a victim
- Fostering trust without giving false hope
- Role of the operator in relation to women who are victims of sexual violence
- Importance of the process for fostering autonomy and the gradual “dwindling need” for the figure of the operator