This report examines the extent to which sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) intersects with the ongoing cycles of violence in South Sudan and cultural norms. Using the case study of Wau town, the report finds a high prevalence of SGBV and identifies challenges that hamper efforts to address it, as well as provides recommendations on how to address the SGBV, including rape, through the legal, social and cultural measures. Read here

Focusing on gender in South Sudan, this meta-analysis provides an overview of the literature available on gender dynamics with a special attention on women. It looks at their role in politics and peacebuilding, conflict related sexual violence (CRSV) and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and explores the changing roles of women in times of conflict. The analysis concludes with a brief assessment of gendered access to education and its evolution over time.  

This review report discusses the prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV), including its forms and drivers in South Sudan.Key takeaways: Women and girls in South Sudan face multiple forms of violence across their life course and in multiple settings, with serious impacts on health and well-being. Women and girls in South Sudan experience high levels of violence. Groups who experience intersecting inequalities are at heightened risk of violence (e.g., adolescent girls, women and girls with disabilities,…

This article explores the everyday politics of protecting women from war and atrocities, based on ethnographic work within the United Nations Protection of Civilians sites, South Sudan. It examines the heterogenous ways that peacekeepers and displaced people conceptualised and enacted women’s rights and protection inside the sites. Protection and gender were variously interpreted, resisted, and transformed. But sexual and gender-based violence remained rife in these makeshift ‘safe havens’. These experiences demonstrate that international peacebuilders cannot…

Abstract Background Conflict and humanitarian crises increase the risk of both intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence against women and girls. The authors measured the prevalence and risk factors of different forms of violence against women and girls in South Sudan, which has suffered decades of conflict, most recently in 2013. Methods A population-based survey was conducted among women aged 15–64 in three conflict-affected sites in South Sudan: Juba, Rumbek, and the Protection of…

Adolescence is a crucial and defining stage in a girl’s life. However, girls around the world too often face unique risks of gender discrimination and gender-based violence (GBV), including sexual violence, human trafficking, forced marriage and sexual exploitation and abuse. This is particularly the case in humanitarian settings, where girls’ already-limited access to vital services and family and peer support networks are disrupted by crises and displacement. Despite this, humanitarian programmes and policies do not…

Gender-based violence (GBV) is pervasive throughout South Sudan. The renewed fighting in 2016 has only worsened the deep suffering and humanitarian needs of civilians, with conflict seriously exacerbating gendered violence. GBV has devastating impacts, resulting in long-term physical, psychological and social traumas that can affect individuals, families and communities for decades. The effects of such violence are further compounded by lack of access to appropriate medical and psychological support, as well as a lack of…

Gender-based violence (GBV) primary prevention programs seek to facilitate change by addressing the underlying causes and drivers of violence against women and girls at a population level. Social norms are contextually and socially derived collective expectations of appropriate behaviors. Harmful social norms that sustain GBV include women’s sexual purity, protecting family honor over women’s safety, and men’s authority to discipline women and children. To evaluate the impact of GBV prevention programs, the research team sought…

This policy brief is produced in cooperation between University for Peace (UPEACE) Centre The Hague, the South Sudan Law Society (SSLS) and PAX. It examines sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Unity State, South Sudan, and offers a number of policy options to help reduce the use of SGBV as a weapon of war in South Sudan. The study contains background information on the protection of civilians (POC) site that the United Nations Mission in…

This report  (2011) summarizes the approach, methodology, results and recommendations of a recent study on the administration of justice for GBV cases in the customary courts of South Sudan. The study is not an attempt to document customary laws or an anthropological study on culture, but instead captures actual results and punishments for GBV, documents good practices, and explores areas of needed reform. Download

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