Echoes From Syria

Issue 3 - August

Gender BASED

©UNHCR Qamishly 2014

Guiding Principle 11:

Internally displaced persons, whether or not their liberty has
been restricted, shall be protected in particular against:
Rape, mutilation, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment, and other outrages upon personal
dignity, such as acts of gender-specific violence, forced
prostitution and any form of indecent assault.
Echoes From Syria

Introduction The majority of gender based violence

survivors are women, but it has been
The escalation of the conflict across Syria has led to the
massive displacement of people internally and across
documented that men and boys have
borders, family separation, increased vulnerability, lack been subject to sexual violence as well
of basic structural and social protection as well as limited – especially in the context of torture.
access to services. This has resulted in increased levels of
Gender-Based Violence (GBV) which is defined as “Acts The impact of gender-based violence, especially rape, can
of physical, mental or social abuse attempted or threat- be devastating and can have a ripple effect through the
ened with some type of force such as violence, threats, family, community, and the entire nation experiencing the
coercion, manipulation, deception, cultural expectations, crisis. Physical consequences include injuries, unwanted
weapons or economic circumstances and is directed pregnancies, fistulae, sexually transmitted infections, in-
against a person because of his/her gender roles and ex- cluding HIV and death. Psychosocial consequences can
pectations in a society or culture”. include anxiety and depression – not only as a result of
the rape but also as women may be traumatized by being
GBV is a global phenomenon that cuts across cultures, rejected and ostracized from their husband and family.
age groups, and economic and social status. It exists in
peace times and during and after conflicts, but it is espe-
cially problematic in the context of complex emergencies,
The Syrian context
where norms regulating social behavior are weakened, The Syrian government has ratified most international
traditional social systems are broken down and civilian conventions related to GBV with minimum reservations.
women and children are often subject to abuse, exploita- Moreover, some legal progress regarding this issue has
tion, violence and other human rights violations, simply been achieved in Syria. For instance in 2009, the Personal
because of their gender, age, and status in society. Status Law was finally amended through a decree that
repealed Article 548 of the Syrian Legal Code related to
GBV involves many types of violence honor killing, replacing this with an article that enforces a
minimum jail sentence of five years for honor killing per-
such as sexual violence including rape, petrators. This amendment was approved by the Syrian
sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sex- Parliament and endorsed by the President.
ual exploitation, early marriage or
forced marriage, gender discrimina- Article 548 of the Syrian Legal code:
tion and is based on unequal power re- The person who finds his wife or one of his as-
cendants, descendants or sisters committing
lationships among men, women, boys adultery or illegitimate sexual acts with another
and girls, which are governed by gen- person so that he kills one of them unintention-
ally must be subject to a jail sentence of at least
der norms. five years.
The most common reported forms of GBV in Syria are
early marriage and domestic violence due to constraints to Moreover, before the crisis few developments relevant to
women’s participation in the spheres of economic or politi- GBV occurred in the country such as the establishment
cal power and lack of access to quality education. While so- of the National Observatory on GBV and the first shelter
cietal norms in Syria condemn certain forms of GBV, it con- for battered women including the victims of violence and
tinues to reinforce survivors’ stigma and support impunity trafficking as well as the adoption of the GBV protocol for
for perpetrators which has in many cases, led to reluctance medical staff.
in reporting incidents. One of the main challenges in pre-
venting and mitigating GBV is the low level of awareness on However, a lot more work needs to be done in relation to
women’s rights in some areas especially in the rural areas GBV especially in terms of children’s right to Syrian citi-
of Aleppo and the north-eastern Governorates. zenship in case their mothers were married to foreigners.

Protection Sector/ Issue 3 1

Echoes From Syria

The international legal 1995 During the Fourth World Conference on

framework Women in Beijing, violence against women
was defined as a violation of women's human
rights.
GBV is a violation of universal human rights protected by
international human rights conventions. One of the main
instruments in relation to GBV is the 1979 Convention UN Security Council adopted Resolution
on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against 1325 on women, peace and security, ensur-
Women (CEDAW). ing increased representation of women at
2000 all decision-making levels in institutions and
Many acts of GBV, including rape and any other form of - programs devoted to the prevention, man-
sexual violence, such as sexual slavery, inforced prostitu- 2013 agement and resolution of conflict. UNSCR
tion and forced pregnancy are strictly prohibited by inter- 1820 (2008), 1888 and 1889 (2009), 1960
national humanitarian law*. (2010) and 2106 (2013) built upon 1325 and
brought a sharper focus to eliminating con-
The global engagement of the international communi- flict- related sexual violence.
ty to address GBV, led by civil society organizations has
been manifested by the growing number of international 2008 Launch of the 2008-2015 campaign, UNiTE to
conferences organized putting pressure on governments End Violence Against Women.
to take immediate action to combat GBV, including the
recent Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict
which was held in London in 2014. Some of the main con- 2013 57th Commission on the Status of Women
(CSW) recommitted itself to the elimina-
ventions and resolutions pertaining to GBV include:
tion and prevention of all forms of violence
against women and children following the
1979 UN General Assembly adopted the Conven-
precursor 1993 Declaration on the Elimina-
tion on the Elimination of All forms of Dis-
tion and Prevention of all forms of Violence
crimination Against Women (CEDAW), which
Against Women.
established gender discrimination as the root
cause of violence against women.

1993 At the World Conference on Human Rights, The Syrian government has ratified most of these
women's right were recognized as human international conventions and their conclusions with
rights, and violence against women was iden- minimum reservations.
tified as an abuse and violation of those rights.

1993 The UN adopted the Declaration on the Elim-

ination of Violence against Women which as-
serts that all states should condemn violence
against women and not invoke any custom,
tradition or religious consideration to justify
its continued existence.

1994 International Conference on Population and

Development (ICPD) urges countries to elimi-
nate all forms of exploitation, violence, abuse,
and harassment of women, adolescents and
children through preventive actions and the
rehabilitation of victims and survivors.
* See, inter alia, Rules 90, 93 and 94 of Customary International Hu-
©UNFPA 2014
manitarian Law (ICRC, 2005), Art.147 of the Fourth Geneva Conven-
tion and Common Article 3.
Protection Sector/ Issue 3 2
Echoes From Syria

Protection Sector response

In the current context of Syria, efforts of humanitarian actors to prevent GBV consist mainly of analyzing the situation,
identifying gaps, advocating for services, raising awareness among communities, building capacity of stakeholders in-
cluding service providers and developing or adapting protocols for GBV.

GBV prevention in Syria

1 Information and Data Management and Analysis: Survivors are usually afraid of being stigmatized; thus,
actual prevalence figures are hard to identify. Efforts are currently exerted to generate service provision data to better
analyze trends and patterns of GBV through needs assessments, feedback from health, psychosocial service providers
and mobile teams as well as reports from community volunteers working with IDPs and affected communities.

2 Raising Awareness: Awareness rais-

ing sessions include advice on, amongst
other things, trafficking, authentication of
marriages, divorce and domestic violence.
Sessions are taking place in 13 communal
shelters in Tartous, two centers in Drek-
ish and with IDPs hosted among the lo-
cal community in Khrab and the southern
area. Moreover, 22 communal shelters are
being covered with awareness sessions in
Damascus and Rural Damascus and ten
centers are being addressed in Homs,
eight centers in Hama and five centers in
Aleppo.

The protection sector has a GBV aware- ©UNFPA 2014

ness campaign to 1,530 staff in the Sah-
naya warehouses with plans to expand it to cover Kisweh and Safita warehouses. Moreover, an awareness-raising
project has been launched aiming to sensitize warehouse workers in Rural Damascus and Safita.

3 Capacity Building: A set of trainings have been launched to build the capacity of local partners. The first set of
training on Orientation on GBV for management staff of NGOs was finalized and it included two groups of 40 par-
ticipants from 12 NGOs from eight governorates. The second round of trainings included five groups on “Basic GBV”
addressing 94 participants from seven national NGOs working in in nine different governorates; Hama, Aleppo, Damas-
cus, Homs, Tartous,Idlib, Lattakia, Daraa and Sweida. Two sets of trainings addressing Outreach Volunteers have been
launched as well. The first stage is a basic GBV training and the second level is an Awareness Training of Trainers.

Capacity building efforts offered by different Protection stakeholders using constructive approaches based on actual
needs of services providers and survivors need to be followed by continuous monitoring and on the job training. An
example of this is the training provided to gynaecologists and mid-wives on case management review linked to the
centres who provide medical services. Since 2011, the sector has been providing basic and specialized GBV training
throughout Syria to more than 474 UN staff, community volunteers, lawyers and staff of the Ministry of Health.

4 Vocational training, Targeted Material Assistance and Socioeconomic Activities: These options are
provided to empower vulnerable individuals who might otherwise fall victim to GBV.

Protection Sector/ Issue 3 3

Echoes From Syria

Comprehensive Response for GBV survivors

1 GBV Referral & Response: A project which incor-
porates both PSS and medical services has been initiated
through a referral system established between shelters,
community and health facilities. The referral is done by
mobile teams and followed by case managers. Moreo-
ver, since the beginning of 2013, the supported health
facilities in Damascus and Rural Damascus provided GBV
screening for 12,196 GBV suspected cases which were
referred to receive specialized medical and counselling
services each.

2 Specialized Medical Services: Medical response

includes training of medical staff on Clinical Management ©UNFPA 2014

of Rape (CMR) and direct medical services to survivors of

GBV especially from sexual violence. Since the beginning of 2013, about 26 medical staff have received specialized CMR
training and 100 received Minimum Initial Service Package (MIS training Including a medical training component .

3 Legal Assistance: is also provided on loss of personal documentation, birth registration, authentication of mar-
riage, divorce, custody, domestic violence, missing family members and property related issues. The assistance takes
the form of advice and assistance with intervention before the courts, police stations and civil registry department.

4 Counselling and Psychosocial Support: So far in 2014, clinics and mobile teams have provided group counsel-
ling to 3,729 women and girls. GBV counselling units in the community centers have been established where survivors
can be counselled and referred to services accordingly. So far, the counselling has started in Damascus, Rural Damas-
cus, Homs, Hama, Sweida, Lattakia and Tartous. Services include Psycho-Social Support (PSS), vocational training and
legal assistance. The trained medical staff, mainly Gynecologists and mid-wives, are linked to these centers to provide
medical services.

5 A Safe house: has been established in Damascus for survivors. The services provided inside the house are compre-
hensive and include, PSS, legal counselling, empowerment, vocational training and other services.

6 Women Safe spaces: A project that provides spaces for women and girls affected by the crisis to discuss freely
their concerns and issues, which serves also as safe spaces for women and girls for GBV and reproductive health
awareness raising, GBV screening and assessment, counselling, medical services, recreational activities and referral to
external services including livelihood opportunities.

Coordination among all the stakeholders is important to ensure effective provision of comprehensive GBV. Therefore,
the Protection Sector in Syria enhanced partnerships among local and international agencies and consequently many
initiatives have emerged such as a project aiming to ensure the provision of comprehensive GBV services to survivors
through the establishment of a referral system between mobile teams and clinics in Damascus and Rural Damascus.

Some of the challenges include, amongst others, limited expertise on the ground, difficulties accessing certain areas
which has prevented proper reporting and the provision of services to GBV survivors and genuine fear of survivors
and/or witnesses of GBV to report on what is going on.
Contact Person for GBV issue :
Jennifer Miquel, Regional GBV Specialist, UNFPA Regional Syria Response Hub, Amman, Jordan - Email: [email protected] - Mobile: 00962795756755

Protection Sector/ Issue 3 4

Echoes From Syria

Protection Sector Response to GBV

01.01.2014 - 31.07.2014

4,244 13,652 56 845 40

3,226 4,690

32 80

7,098

9,148

1,572 1,852 Hassakeh

Aleppo
Raqqa
21 6,827
65
20
Idlib 283
Lattakia
400
3,552 4,127 Deir es Zour
Hama
405 3,441

10,366 2,755
189
Tartous
15,812 26,215 84
Homs 5,606
16 3,714
13,594 40,064
228 991
766 16,729
52
12,107 843
5,935 2

323 1,641 12,243

Damascus
Rural Damascus
Quneitra
1,951 Daraa 32,454 25,716
Sweida
2,966 19,121

465 12,952

2,603

4
73 Awareness Raising
1,232 76,707 Beneficiaries
4,114

1,562 1,932 Capacity building

803 Beneficiaries

Referral & Response

13,220 Beneficiaries
Legal Assistance
1,067 Beneficiaries

Psychosocial Support (PSS)

132,562 Beneficiaries
Socioeconomic Activities
63,131 Beneficiaries
PCSS Coordinator:
Targeted Material Assistance
Ajmal Khybari 59,102 Beneficiaries
[email protected]
Protection Sector/ Issue 3 5