Who Is Centered in the Humanitarian Response to Gender-Based Violence? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Survivor-Centered Approach.

Since the 1990s, the international humanitarian system has developed approaches, tools, and standards for addressing gender-based violence (GBV) in emergencies premised on the survivor-centered approach (SCA). Utilizing critical discourse analysis, we explore how articulation of SCA within humanitarian discourse aligns with its stated intent to return control to survivors. The analysis reveals that humanitarian system power dynamics distort the application of SCA, leaving humanitarian service providers in charge of assessing the best course of action or severely limiting survivors' choices.

Understudied and underaddressed: Femicide, an extreme form of violence against women and girls.

Little is known about the prevalence and dynamics of femicide, a persistent form of violence against women and girls, due to challenges associated with its documentation. Research by Abrahams and colleagues comparing rates of femicide in South Africa over 18 years, however, suggests that femicide is preventable.

Gender-based violence against adolescent girls in humanitarian settings: a review of the evidence.

Adolescent girls face elevated risks of gender-based violence in humanitarian settings because of the intersectionality of age and gender, and the additional and exacerbated risk factors relevant to emergencies. Because there is no clear division of labour between the gender-based violence and child protection sectors, adolescent girls are often neglected by both groups, and violence against this subpopulation goes unaddressed. This Review presents an adapted ecological framework for gender-based violence risks facing adolescent girls in emergencies, synthesises the scant evidence for gender-based violence prevention and response, and identifies barriers to effective and ethical measurement and evaluation of programme effectiveness.

Discriminatory attitudes and practices by health workers toward patients with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.

Background: Nigeria has an estimated 3.6 million people with HIV/AIDS and is home to one out of every 11 people with HIV/AIDS worldwide. This study is the first population-based assessment of discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in the health sector of a country.

Physician participation in human rights abuses in southern Iraq.

Context: Physicians are known to have participated in human rights abuses in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime, but the nature and extent of that participation are not well documented.

Objectives: To characterize the nature of physician participation in human rights abuses, identify structural factors that facilitated physician participation, and assess approaches for accountability and for prevention of future physician participation in abuses.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A self-administered survey in June and July, 2003, of a convenience sample of 98 physicians and semistructured interviews of hospital directors and physicians in 3 major hospitals with general surgical units in 2 cities in southern Iraq.

Human rights abuses and concerns about women's health and human rights in southern Iraq.

Context: Although human rights abuses have been reported in Iraq, the full scope of these abuses has not been well documented.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of human rights abuses since 1991 in southern Iraq, along with attitudes about women's health and human rights and women's rights and roles in society, to inform reconstruction and humanitarian assistance efforts in Iraq.

Design: Cross-sectional, randomized survey of Iraqi men and women conducted in July 2003 using structured questionnaires.

Child labor. A matter of health and human rights.

Despite the existence of laws in India that prohibit the labor of children under age 14, 70 to 115 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are estimated to be part of India's labor force. Child labor in the agriculture sector accounts for 80% of child laborers in India and 70% of working children globally. From May 2001 to July 2001, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) investigated the health experiences of 100 children in hybrid cottonseed production in rural Andhra Pradesh.

Maternal mortality in Herat Province, Afghanistan, in 2002: an indicator of women's human rights.

Context: Maternal mortality rates in Afghanistan are estimated to be high.

Objective: To assess maternal mortality and human rights issues in Herat, Afghanistan.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional survey of 4886 Afghan women living in 7 districts in Afghanistan's Herat Province, which included 34 urban and rural villages/towns.

Prevalence of war-related sexual violence and other human rights abuses among internally displaced persons in Sierra Leone.

Context: Sierra Leone's decade-long conflict has cost tens of thousands of lives and all parties to the conflict have committed abuses.

Objective: To assess the prevalence and impact of war-related sexual violence and other human rights abuses among internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sierra Leone.

Design And Setting: A cross-sectional, randomized survey, using structured interviews and questionnaires, of internally displaced Sierra Leone women who were living in 3 IDP camps and 1 town, which were conducted over a 4-week period in 2001.