GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

By Okumba Miruka
COPA TRAINING
March 15, 2021

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PLENARY

What is violence?

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DEFINITIONS: Violence

Use of actual or
threatened force or
power against self, an
individual or groups.

May occur in family,

community or society
at large.

Can be overt (physical

assault) or covert
(intimidation)
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DEFINITIONS: Gender Based Violence

Harm perpetrated against a person – male

or female – due to their gender identity.

Expression of unequal power relations to

dominate others.

Inter-gender or intra-gender.

Private or public & at any stage of life.

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DEFINITIONS: Power

Authority/ability to
materially affect others’
rights, entitlements or
relationships.

Based on position, rank,

influence, status,
control of resources.

Power relations are

inter-gender & intra-
gender.
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DEFINITIONS: Sexual Abuse, Harassment & Exploitation

Sexual Abuse Sexual Exploitation

Actual or threatened Any abuse of a position of
physical intrusion of a vulnerability, differential
sexual nature based on power or trust for sexual
unequal power relations. purposes.

Sexual Harassment Includes profiting

Any act of a sexual nature monetarily, socially or
that is unwelcome, politically from the sexual
uninvited and unrequited exploitation of another.
and which makes its target
uncomfortable, offended,
demeaned, humiliated,
coerced and undignified.

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DEFINITIONS: Exercise

 Is “gender based violence” the same

thing as “violence against women”?
Explain with examples.

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FORMS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Plenary Discussion

Write on cards four examples of gender

based violence from your contexts of
work.

Place the examples under the relevant

cluster/form provided on the wall.
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FORMS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Sexual Forms

Rape and attempted

rape.
Rape-induced
abortions.
Sexual exploitation of
house maids.
Incest.
Sexual slavery.
Forced intercourse
(sometimes with
inanimate objects)
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FORMS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Psychological Forms

Harassment, intimidation,
humiliation e.g. stripping
women naked.
Forcing men to witness
rape of their wives.
Abuse of women with
children from rapes.
Marrying off girls to those
who raped them.

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FORMS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Physical Forms

Assault and battery.

Abduction & detention.
Rejection, beating, arrest &
even murder of girls
pregnant before wedlock.
Detention of rape victims
who report.
Torturing boys to reveal
whereabouts of fathers.

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FORMS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Socio-economic Forms
Disinheritance.
Family separation
leading to sexual and
physical slavery.
Low priority on girls’
education.
Confiscating or
destroying means of
livelihood e.g.
certificates, horses,
donkey carts, farms.
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FORMS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Cultural Forms
Early marriages.
“Free” marriages after
rape.
Female genital
mutilation (sometimes
imposed by dominant
community).
Honour killings
Coerced widow
inheritance.
Ghost marriages 17
CONSEQUENCES OF GBV

How does GBV affect:

•Men
•Women
•Boys
•Girls
•Intersex persons?

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 CONSEQUENCES OF GBV

On Women On Men
Sexually transmitted infections
Humiliation (e.g. when wives &
HIV/AIDS daughters are raped in full view
Unwanted pregnancies of spouse/father & other
Bodily injury community members who
Death cannot do anything)
Infertility Death (e.g. summary execution)
Fistula Sexual humiliation and
infection due to sodomy
Humiliation
Loss of self esteem (when
Stigma abused for inability to provide
Loss of self-esteem for families)
Fear, anxiety, hopelessness Loss of childhood for child
Depression soldiers
Suicide
Self-blame
Rejection
Medical costs
Loss of productivity

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 GBV: A PROTECTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE

GBV violates both individual and

group rights hence is a human rights
issue (What human rights are violated
through GBV?)
GBV exploits the vulnerability of
individuals and groups who therefore
need protection (What are the
protection needs of victims/survivors
of GBV?)
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PERPETRATORS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Perpetrator: A person, group or

institution that directly inflicts or
otherwise supports violence or other
abuse on another.

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PERPETRATORS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Categories of Perpetrators

1. Intimate partners
(spouses, lovers): Most
societies ascribe to male
intimate partners roles of
decision-making and
power over females:
This power is often
exerted through
discrimination, violence
and abuse.

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PERPETRATORS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

2. Family members, 3. Influential personalities:

relatives, friends & Teachers, leaders,
close acquaintances: politicians, clergy etc can
Girls more likely to suffer and do abuse their power
GBV in domestic sphere and authority through
(neglect, femicide, incest, GBV. Few reports are
early marriage). The made because of
violations are hardly perpetrator’s position of
reported since they are trust and power.
perpetrated by relatives
or familiar people.
Families often condone
harmful traditional
practices.

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PERPETRATORS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

4. Humanitarian aid
workers: The
authority, money,
influence, prestige,
resources and power
held can be abused
to commit GBV
especially sexual
exploitation and
abuse.

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PERPETRATORS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

5. Security forces and

soldiers: embody
ultimate power, are
armed, have a mandate
to ensure security, can
detain and/or arrest with
impunity, grant or
withhold rights and
privileges, control
borders and
checkpoints.

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PERPETRATORS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

6. Institutions:
Discrimination in delivery
of social services,
withholding information,
delaying or denying
medical assistance,
offering unequal salaries
for the same work and
obstructing justice & acts
of ommission are some
forms of violence
perpetrated through
institutions.

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PERPETRATORS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Generally
Most cases of GBV involve a female
victim and a male perpetrator.
Most acts of GBV against boys and
men are also committed by male
perpetrators.

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PERPETRATORS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

 Identify examples
of gender based
violence against
men and boys.
 Identify examples
of gender based
violence among
females alone.

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 GBV AGAINST MALES

Defilement & sexual Risky work

exploitation by servants, Neglect as training in
relatives, older women. hardiness
Sodomy in prisons, training Emotional suppression
camps, schools etc
Sexual permissiveness
Sexual harassment at work
Castration e.g. slave trade
Pressure to perform sexually,
economically, academically. Harmful rites e.g. scarification,
sexual initiation
Humiliation e.g. witnessing
rape of spouse, stigma for Child marriages
impotence, insults for siring Accelerated adulthood e.g.
daughters (e.g. Arabic “abu care for siblings on death of
banat”). parents
Child soldiering Spousal violence: battery,
Extermination in conflicts denial of services, destruction
of assets, ganging, bobbitry
Forced sexual intercourse
(even with inanimate objects)

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 FEMALE TO FEMALE GBV

Co-wife violence Female genital

Lesbian violence mutilation
Trafficking and Complicity in
procuration femicide, honour
killings, child
Forced prostitution
marriages
Battery, humiliation
and exploitation of
domestic servants

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 Videos

Our Bodies their Battleground

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