Too often in humanitarian settings, international organizations working on gender-based violence (GBV) operate without a vision for increasing local capacity, building partnerships, and providing opportunities for communities to guide and sustain programming. With many countries dealing with protracted emergencies and the complexities of transitioning from a emergency relief to a longer-term recovery setting, partnerships with local organizations must become a higher priority in humanitarian efforts....

This article posted by Chelsea Cooper and Leora Ward of the American Refugee Committee (ARC).  Click on the file link below this text to read the full article. 

The Forgotten Men:  An Examination of Sexual Violence Committed Against Males During Wartime and Conflict.  by Seth Rosenblatt

Summary:

Although the international development community has created programming to both prevent gender-based violence (GBV) against females in conflict zones and respond to the needs of female victims, it has failed to acknowledge that males too are also victims of GBV in such settings. Male civilians in several conflict zones, including the former Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone have been castrated, have had their genitals mutilated and shocked and have been forced to perform sex acts with other soldiers.  The international community has done little to bring this phenomenon to light and little effort has been made to provide appropriate services to male victims and ensure that GBV against males does not occur.  This paper outlines how confusion and misuse surrounding the definition of GBV excludes the possibility of acknowledging the existence of male victims, outlines conflict zones where there have been documented cases of male victims of gender-based violence, examines what the international community is currently doing to address the needs of male victims, and provides recommendations for program officers and scholars to enact in order to ensure that male victims of GBV are given access to the same services and rights made available to their female counterparts.

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