Gender-Based Violence against Female Refugees in Refugee Camps (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: Excellent, Addis Ababa University (Center For Human Rights), course: Human Rights, language: English, abstract: Gender-based violence prevents female's enjoyment of fundamental human rights and it is also central social, economic and health problem. Similarly, gender-based violence is viewed as a significant problem in refugee camps throughout the world. However, in Ethiopia studies on gender based violence against female refugees are limited. Most researches in this area were conducted in line with other problems of refugees. Yet, in order to assess comprehensively it needs specific study.

Thus, the main objective of the study was to examine the prevalence, cause and consequences of gender based violence against female refugees in Mai Ayni refugee camp. In order to achieve these objectives, qualitative methods of data collection have been employed. Hence, data were collected from in-depth interview with eighteen female refugees and five male refugees, focus group discussion with male and female refugees, key informant interviews with concerned bodies as well as document analysis and personal observation were used.

The study has found that female refugees in the camp were exposed to sexual violence, physical violence and socio-economic violence including; attempt rape, rape, gang rape, physical injuries, discrimination and stigmatization, , and denial of access to services. The study also disclosed that male refugees and intimate partners of female refugees were the prime gender based violence perpetrators of female refugees in Mai Ayni refugee camp.

Moreover, the study revealed that idleness, economic dependency, physical insecurity, lack of awareness, collapse of social and family structure as well as poor reporting, coordination and legal enforcement mechanisms were identified as causes/risk factors for gender based violence against female refugees in Mai Ayni refugee camp. Moreover, men's feeling of 'loss of power' in the camp, which challenges male's identity as superior to female, led male refugees to anger and makes female refugees vulnerable to different forms of gender based violence. Consequently, because of gender based violence, female refugees in the camp have short and long lasting damaging consequence on their life in terms of health, physical and psycho-social.