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PART III: THEORY
When health personnel inform communities about rape, they need to identify an appropriate approach to the discussion. It is important to remember that silence permits the perpetrators of crimes like rape to act without criticism or risk to themselves. It permits them to continue to harm and terrorise individuals and communities.
When addressing GBV, it is sensible to start by making a context analysis. What is the general situation in the community? The analysis may consider poverty, vulnerability, gender relations, and the broader political and economic situation of the country. It is vital to ensure that your analysis provides the community with information that it considers relevant and valuable. In the course of preparing the analysis, map the nature and extent of GBV and local responses to it at community level, taking account of who the perpetrators are, and customary law. Your analysis should highlight the vulnerability of men and boys as well as women and girls. Consider the roles and contributions of:
• The national legal framework governing GBV( including international commitments and national laws) and responses to it by the judiciary and police.
• International development partners working on GBV, including multilateral and bilateral agencies, and international NGOs. UNFPA is mandated to lead on GBV within the UN family.
• Local organisations working on GBV, including human rights organisations, women’ s associations, and NGOs. Where they exist, associations of women’ s lawyers are a good source of information.
Experience indicates that the potential of local organisations, and local women’ s organisations in particular, is not utilised fully. Local organisations and networks understand the local context, have access to contacts and resources not available to international agencies, and are acceptable to the local population. If they are involved from an early stage, they can help outsiders to adapt their programmes in appropriate ways to local circumstances( Herstad 2009).
It may be helpful to bear in mind a few additional rules of thumb.
• Evaluate whether the community’ s existing systems and procedures provide an adequate framework and entry points to scale up GBV prevention and response programmes.
• Be sure to find a suitable, culturally acceptable way to present information.
• To make progress, GBV prevention and response should be visible and credible. As far as possible they should be promoted in cooperation with local leaders and with community support.
• Impunity for perpetrators of GBV is an important factor in GBV’ s continuation. It should be affirmed that the community does not tolerate impunity. Leaders and high officials should set the standard for acceptable behaviour and should be persuaded to champion the argument that their community will benefit if it ceases to be violent.
Family and close network
The support of families and close friends is of the utmost importance for victims of sexual violence. If possible, talk first to family members, friends, and other members of a survivor’ s social network – any person whom the survivor trusts and agrees to contact. The survivor’ s family in particular will need information and advice. Find out what the family and close contacts think about what happened. Give them relevant information about trauma and possible reactions to it. Tell them that their support is vital for the survivor’ s recovery. If no family members or close contacts can be found or mobilised, seek to create new support networks among the survivors themselves.