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It's not about the gender binary, it's about the gender hierarchy: A reply to “Letting Go of the Gender Binary”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2017

Jeanne Ward
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Abstract

The “Debate” section of the Review aims to contribute to the reflection on current ethical, legal, or operational controversies around humanitarian issues.

In its issue on “Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict” (Vol. 96, No. 894, 2014), the Review published an Opinion Note by Chris Dolan entitled “Letting Go of the Gender Binary: Charting New Pathways for Humanitarian Interventions on Gender-Based Violence”. In light of the review process for the Inter-Agency Standing Committee's Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action (GBV Guidelines), Dolan argues for a shift in the conceptualization of gender-based violence (GBV) in humanitarian settings from an emphasis on gender equality to an ethos of gender inclusivity. This, he suggests, is essential to improving the situation of victims, furthering social justice and changing agendas.

In this issue, the Review presents the view of Jeanne Ward, one of the lead authors of the revised GBV Guidelines. For Ward, attempts to shift away from a focus on gender equality in GBV programming represent a regression rather than an advancement for the GBV field, as a dedicated spotlight on the rights and needs of women and girls continues to be hard-won in humanitarian contexts. Instead, she suggests retaining a focus on women and girls in GBV work, while moving forward in partnership with those who wish to accelerate programming directed to men and LGBTI communities broadly.

Keywords

violence against women and girlswomen's rightsGBVgender equalitygender inclusivityhumanitarian responseIASCLGBTI
Type
Selected articles
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 98 , Issue 901: War in cities , April 2016 , pp. 275 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © icrc 2017 

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References

1 For a summary of the history of GBV programming in humanitarian settings, see: www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/1472-historical-timeline.html (all internet references were accessed in December 2016).

2 Aimed primarily at those who do not work in specialized GBV programmes or have a specialist background in GBV, the revised IASC GBV Guidelines seek to assist humanitarian actors and communities affected by armed conflict, natural disasters and other humanitarian emergencies to undertake measures to prevent and mitigate GBV across all sectors of humanitarian response. The introduction to the Guidelines lays the groundwork in terms of framing the problem of GBV and describing the international commitments that oblige the entire humanitarian community to address GBV. The remainder of the Guidelines provide specific sectoral guidance across the humanitarian programme cycle and within a framework of each humanitarian sector's existing mandates, responsibilities and capacities.

3 The Task Team included representatives of the global GBV Area of Responsibility co-lead agencies – UNICEF and UNFPA – as well as the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UN Women, the World Food Programme, expert NGOs (including the American Refugee Committee, Care International, Catholic Relief Services, ChildFund International, Interaction, the International Medical Corps, the International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, Plan International, Refugees International, Save the Children and the Women's Refugee Commission), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and independent consultants with extensive GBV experience.

4 Launches have since been held in Geneva, Washington, DC, New York and Canada.

5 Dolan, Chris, “Letting Go of the Gender Binary: Charting New Pathways for Humanitarian Interventions on Gender-Based Violence”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 96, No. 894, 2014, p. 486 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: www.icrc.org/en/download/file/12231/irrc-894-dolan.pdf.

6 At the most basic level, some argue that GBV programming is not the purview of humanitarian action. The first global assessment report on GBV was published only in 2002. As the author of that report, I tracked several programmes that had been introduced in different regions of the world – most only a few years old – and concluded that there were “significant gaps in policy, programming, coordination, and protection” related to GBV in humanitarian settings globally. During research for the report I was often told by interviewees – particularly men in dominant positions within the humanitarian response architecture – that to address violence against women and girls was to meddle in culture and therefore outside the scope of humanitarian intervention. See Ward, Jeanne, If Not Now, When? Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Refugee, IDP and Post-conflict Settings, Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium, 2002 Google ScholarPubMed. It is routine amongst many GBV actors to discuss experiences of pushback against a focus on women and girls that arise at all levels of humanitarian action and across all settings. However, these challenges are often not captured in articles or guidelines, in part because of fears linked, in the words of one GBV expert, to “rising above the parapet” and risking a hostile response that undermines what support there is for GBV programming. This is discussed in more detail later in the article.

7 C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 493.

8 Ibid ., p. 500.

9 Ibid ., p. 500 (the internal brackets are mine).

10 Throughout this paper, I refer to “LGBTI populations broadly” or “writ large” or “generally”. I do this in order to differentiate work that is focused on shared LGBTI concerns related to sexual orientation and gender identity from work on GBV that strives to meet the needs of all female survivors and those at risk, including lesbians and transgender women. However, in using terms such as “broadly”, I do not wish to wrongly imply that the LGBTI community is necessarily holistic or homogeneous. There is a tendency in Dolan's article to link men and LGBTI populations together as an excluded group, the generality of which I do not wish to replicate.

11 The IASC Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action, 2006, p. 1, defines gender equality as “equality between women and men”. The Handbook identifies addressing GBV as a critical targeted action necessary to achieving gender equality. Available at: www.humanitarianresponse.info/system/files/documents/files/Gender%20Handbook.pdf. See also Liz Wall, “Gender Equality and Violence against Women: What's the Connection?”, Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault Research Summary, 2014, available at: www3.aifs.gov.au/acssa/pubs/researchsummary/ressum7/ressum7.pdf; Falb, Kathryn L., Annan, Jeannie and Gupta, Jhumka, “Achieving Gender Equality to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence against Women”, The Lancet Global Health, Vol. 3, No. 6, 2015 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, available at: www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(15)00006-6/abstract?cc=y=; Jewkes, Rachel, Flood, Michael and Lang, James, “From Work with Men and Boys to Changes of Social Norms and Reduction of Inequities in Gender Relations: A Conceptual Shift in Prevention of Violence against Women and Girls”, The Lancet, Vol. 385, No. 9977, 2014 Google ScholarPubMed, available at: www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61683-4/abstract.

12 In order to ensure transparency, feedback from the global review was catalogued and responded to in writing during the revisions process, and shared with all those who reviewed the Guidelines as well as any other interested parties.

13 Inter-agency Standing Committee, Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action, 2015 (GBV Guidelines), p. 6Google Scholar (emphasis in original). The Guidelines and other materials can be downloaded at: www.gbvguidelines.org.

14 Although not the focus of this article, it is worth noting that a decision was taken when drafting the 2005 GBV Guidelines to focus on sexual violence in the emergency stages of humanitarian intervention, due in part to the appalling failure to address sexual violence against women and girls in Darfur occurring at the time the first GBV Guidelines were drafted. This focus on sexual violence in the 2005 Guidelines appears to have contributed to a misunderstanding by some that sexual violence is separate from or exceptional to other forms of GBV, driven purely by the conflict rather than existing on a continuum of violence to which females are exposed often multiple times throughout their lifespan, in peacetime as well as humanitarian emergencies.  The UN Security Council's attention to sexual violence as a feature of conflict (starting in 2008 with UNSC Res. 1820) may also have contributed to this misunderstanding, insofar as sexual violence rapidly became virtually the sole wartime violation of women's and girls’ rights on which the Council focused, squeezing out not only other abuses but also attention to women's agency as actors involved in conflict. This victim focus also suffered from the Council's narrow focus on conflict alone – conflict-related sexual violence was treated as separate from other forms of GBV. This misunderstanding is reflected in Dolan's Opinion Note when it is suggested that there is now “increasing acknowledgement … that sexual violence is not the only form of gender-based violence” (C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 485). In fact, there has been acknowledgement amongst GBV experts since the very beginning of this work that GBV comprises a spectrum of violations of which sexual violence is only one, and programming in the field often reflects this. The revised GBV Guidelines reflect this reality. See also, International Rescue Committee, Private Violence, Public Concern: Intimate Partner Violence in Humanitarian Settings, Practice Brief, 2015 Google Scholar, available at: www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/resource-file/IRC_PVPC_FINAL_EN.PDF.

15 UN Special Rapporteur, Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective, E/CN.4/205/72, 2005, p. 8.

16 C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 496.

17 Ibid ., p. 499.

18 On the last point about State fragility and its link to gender inequality, see, for example, Bowen, Donna Lee, Hudson, Valerie M. and Nielsen, Perpetua Lynne, “State Fragility and Structural Gender Inequality in Family Law: An Empirical Investigation”, Laws, Vol. 4, No. 4, 2015 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/4/4/654.

19 The majority of global tools to support attention to violence against women and girls in humanitarian action have been developed since the 2000s. Many are available on the GBV Area of Responsibility website, available at: gbvaor.net.

20 The IASC Gender Marker is one way to measure this. It is a tool used to assess the extent to which humanitarian programmes ensure equal benefits to males and females, and/or support gender equality. Despite progress, a 2015 review found that many humanitarian response plans lack a gender perspective. See IASC, Gender Equality in the 2015 Strategic Response Plan: Results and Evolution of the IASC Gender Marker, 2015, available at: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/gender_equality_in_the_strategic_response_plan_2015.pdf.

21 Htun, Mala and Weldon, S. Laurel, “The Civic Origins of Progressive Policy Change: Combating Violence against Women in Global Perspective, 1975–2005”, American Political Science Review, Vol. 106, No. 3, 2012 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8675829&fileId=S0003055412000226.

22 See: http://whomakesthenews.org/gmmp/gmmp-reports/gmmp-2015-reports.

23 International Rescue Committee, Lifesaving, Not Optional: Protecting Women and Girls from Violence in Emergencies, 2013, p. 2, available at: www.themimu.info/sites/themimu.info/files/documents/Ref_Doc_Lifesaving_Not_Optional_-_Discussion_Paper_Feb2013.pdf.

24 International Rescue Committee, Are We There Yet? Progress and Challenges in Ensuring Life-Saving Services and Reducing Risks to Violence for Women and Girls in Emergencies, 2015, available at: www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/document/664/ircarewethereyetwebfinalukspell.pdf.

25 Global Humanitarian Assistance, Funding Gender in Emergencies: What Are the Trends?, 2014, p. 3, available at: www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Gender-briefing_humanitarian_19092014.pdf.pdf. Also see Lydia Alpizar Durán, “20 Years of Shamefully Scarce Funding for Feminists and Women's Rights Movements”, AWID, May 2015, available at: www.awid.org//node/3317.

26 Marcy Hersh, Philippines: Emergency Response Fails Women and Girls, Refugees International Field Report, 2014, p. 1, available at: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Philippines%20GBV%20New%20Approach%20letterhead.pdf

27 C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 486.

28 Cynthia Enloe, cited in Puechguirbal, Nadine, “The Cost of Ignoring Gender in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations: A Feminist Perspective”, Amsterdam Law Forum, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2012, p. 15Google Scholar.

29 Women's Refugee Commission (WRC), No Safety for Refugee Women on the European Route: Report from the Balkans, January 2016, available at: www.womensrefugeecommission.org. In a series of four assessments from November 2015 through May 2016, the WRC found that opportunities to protect and empower refugee women are systematically squandered. Also see: www.buzzfeed.com/jinamoore/women-refugees-fleeing-through-europe-are-told-rape-is-not-a#.vhm0wBJJ3x.

30 C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 501.

31 See, for example, Milward, Kirsty, Mukhopadhyay, Maitrayee and Wong, Franz F., “Gender Mainstreaming Critiques: Signposts or Dead Ends?”, IDS Bulletin, Vol. 46, No. 4, 2015 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: www.readcube.com/articles/10.1111%2F1759-5436.12160; Daly, Mary, “Gender Mainstreaming in Theory and Practice”, Social Politics, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2005 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: http://sp.oxfordjournals.org/content/12/3/433.abstract; Anu Pillay, “Gender Praxis in Emergencies: 20 Years after Beijing”, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, April 2015, available at: www.unrisd.org/unrisd/website/newsview.nsf/(http://News)/2D7805628CBE469FC1257E1B0058AE9E?OpenDocument.

32 In response to concerns expressed by women's rights advocates to this approach, Iceland's foreign minister agreed that women would be able to participate in the meeting, while also stating that this “Barbershop Conference” was oriented towards creating a scaled-up space for men to speak to one another, as they might do in an actual barbershop. The meeting was held in January 2015. See: www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49808.

33 Feminist thinkers and women's rights activists also expressed concerns that the summit focused away from gender issues and towards war as the explanation for conflict-related sexual violence. For thoughts on the summit, see Anne Marie Goetz, “Stopping Sexual Violence in Conflict: Gender Politics in Foreign Policy”, Open Democracy, 20 June 2014, available at: www.opendemocracy.net/5050/anne-marie-goetz/stopping-sexual-violence-in-conflict-gender-politics-in-foreign-policy. Goetz argues: “Advocacy language suggesting ‘it's not about sex/women/gender, it's about war’ may have helped to convince the Security Council that this was a subject requiring their attention, but may also have unwittingly downplayed the importance of the feminist emancipatory projects of empowering survivors, and ensuring that protection and recovery efforts contribute to transformation in gender relations.”

34 See: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/6e94daee6b3fa3110e869bf47/files/UNHCRLAW_Panel_Agenda.pdf.

35 For the origination of this term, see Sandroff, Ronni, “Beware of Phallic Drift”, On the Issues: The Progressive Women's Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1994, p. 2Google Scholar.

36 See: www.usip.org/events/men-peace-and-security-symposium-agents-of-change.

37 UN Women, Women's Participation in Peace Negotiations: Connections between Presence and Influence, 2015, available at: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/03AWomenPeaceNeg.pdf.

38 For information about the MenEngage Global Symposium, see: www.menengagedilli2014.net/symposium.html. For further feminist reflection about the MenEngage work, see Shamim Meer, Struggles for Gender Equality: Reflections on the Place of Men and Men's Organisations, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, 2012, available at: www.eldis.org/go/home&id=70513&type=Document#.VpnzADY65-U. Also see Flood, Michael, “Work with Men to End Violence against Women: A Critical Stocktake”, Culture, Health & Sexuality, Vol. 17, 2015 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2015.1070435. It is important to note that some in the MenEngage community are concerned about issues of accountability to women and girls and have introduced related standards and guidelines. See MenEngage Alliance, “Accountability Standards and Guidelines”, 2014, available at: http://menengage.org/resources/menengage-accountability-standards-guidelines/.

39 See, for example, Anu Pillay, “Gender and Men in Humanitarian Action”, paper written for master's in humanitarian affairs, University of York, 2015, p. 6. The author describes the protectionist approach as one that “while recognising differences, seeks to curtail or curb women's activities or freedoms with the rationale that the aim is to ‘protect’ women from harm or wrongdoing. This approach does not challenge gender discrimination, but reproduces it in the guise of protecting women.”

40 C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 488.

41 For a discussion of this, see Edwards, Alice, “Transitioning Gender: Feminist Engagement with International Refugee Law and Policy 1950–2010”, Refugee Survey Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2010 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: https://academic.oup.com/rsq/article-abstract/29/2/21/1531885/Transitioning-Gender-Feminist-Engagement-with. Edwards suggests that “a further shift away from a focus on women and women's rights under the AGDM agendas to the concerns and needs of men and boys, or human beings more generally, could undermine the goals of sexual equality and social justice, in particular by downplaying the power dynamics at issue”.

42 See, for example, Susan Somach, The Other Side of the Gender Equation: Gender Issues for Men in the Europe and Eurasia Region, Final Report, USAID, 2011, available at: www.ineesite.org/en/resources/resource_db_the-other-side-of-the-gender-equation-gender-issues-for-men-in. Also see Daniel Neumann, Ann Chang and Otim Patrick, Gender against Men, Refugee Law Project – Video Advocacy Unit, May 2012, available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJSl99HQYXc.

43 C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 493.

44 GBV Guidelines, above note 13, p. 5.

45 As a notable indication of the extent to which advocacy for gender neutrality shifts us away from well-established feminist theory, a request was made in the Guidelines reviewer feedback that “this paragraph on the CEDAW [sic – the reference was actually to DEVAW] definition add: ‘this definition has been developed in the context of eliminating violence against women and girls while it is increasingly acknowledged that men and boys face gender based violence as well. The current CEDAW [sic] definition needs to be revised to include all those at risk of gender based violence with reference to violence against women, girls, men and boys based on gender and unequal power relations.’”  The Task Team declined to include a recommendation within the Guidelines that DEVAW be revised.

46 2005 GBV Guidelines, p. 7.

47 There is undoubtedly room for specialists working on the problem of sexual violence against males to improve knowledge and capacity of service providers in order to meet male survivor needs sensitively and ethically. It may be useful to highlight, however, that although the argument has been made by some non-GBV specialists that male victims of sexual violence are actively excluded from clinical services that GBV programmes support, this does not reflect reality – in humanitarian settings where it exists, clinical care is meant to be available for any sexual assault survivor, in accordance with global guidance. See World Health Organization (WHO), UNFPA and UNHCR, Clinical Management of Rape Survivors: Developing Protocols for use with Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, revised ed., 2004. The GBV Information Management System (GBVIMS) captures sex- and age-disaggregated data on survivors’ access to services, including men and boy's access to clinical care for sexual assault. For more information about the GBVIMS, see: www.gbvims.com/what-is-gbvims/gbvims-background/.

48 It is worth noting that in 2016, despite concerted efforts by women's activists, the UN Secretary-General appointment was a male, as all previous appointments have been. In November 2016, all incoming humanitarian coordinators were male, despite women being underrepresented in these positions globally. See Ayla Black, “Women in Humanitarian Leadership – Where Are They?”, Humanitarian Advisory Group, November 2016, available at: http://humanitarianadvisorygroup.org/women-in-humanitarian-leadership-where-are-they/. Importantly, male-dominated environments include not only international institutions, on which the cited article focuses, but also humanitarian settings themselves, many of which are among the lowest in the global gender inequality index. See: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/gender-inequality-index-gii.

49 Nadine Puechguirbal, “I Speak Fluent Patriarchy, But It's not My Mother Tongue: Perspectives of a Feminist Insider within International Institutions”, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Colloquium: “Who Knows? Circulation of Feminist Knowledge on Development and Gender Experts”, Geneva, 19–20 November 2015, p. 13.

50 The revised GBV Guidelines suggest that “certain forms of violence against men and boys – particularly sexual violence committed with the explicit purpose of reinforcing gender inequitable norms of masculinity and femininity … [are] based on socially constructed ideas of what it means to be a man and exercise male power”. GBV Guidelines, above note 13, p. 5.

51 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, UNGA Res. 48/104, 20 December 1993.

52 Analyzing evidence across 654 countries from 1982 to 2011, WHO estimated that as many as 38% of female homicides globally were committed by male partners, while the corresponding figure for men was 6%. WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and South African Medical Research Council, Global and Regional Estimates of Violence against Women: Prevalence and Health Effects of Intimate Partner Violence and Non-Partner Sexual Violence, 2013, p. 26, available at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/85239/1/9789241564625_eng.pdf?ua=1. In its Global Status Report on Violence Prevention, WHO further concluded: “Whereas males are disproportionately represented among victims of violent death and physical injuries treated in emergency departments, women and girls, children and elderly people disproportionately bear the burden of the nonfatal consequences of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, and neglect, worldwide. They also suffer a host of negative health and social consequences from these acts of violence that often last a lifetime and that are not captured in official statistics.” WHO, Global Status Report on Violence Prevention, 2014, p. 8, available at: www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/status_report/2014/en. Also see WHO, World Report on Violence and Health, 2002, p. 89, available at: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/9241545615.pdf. Here WHO concludes that “[o]ne of the most common forms of violence against women is that performed by a husband or an intimate male partner. This is in stark contrast to the situation for men, who in general are much more likely to be attacked by a stranger or acquaintance than by someone within their close circle of relationships. The fact that women are often emotionally involved with and economically dependent on those who victimize them has major implications for both the dynamics of abuse and the approaches to dealing with it …. Most women who are targets of physical aggression generally experience multiple acts of aggression over time.” For a comprehensive overview of the causes and impact of violence against women that includes these and other references, see UN Women's Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence against Women and Girls, available at: www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/300-causes-protective-and-risk-factors-.html.

53 OHCHR, Discriminatory Laws and Practices and Acts of Violence against Individuals Based on Their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, 2011, available at: www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Discrimination/A.HRC.19.41_English.pdf.

54 C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 497.

55 Ibid ., p. 497.

56 Ibid ., p. 492.

57 Ibid ., p. 495.

58 Rashida Manjoo, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences, A/HRC/26/38, May 2014, p. 17, available at: www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session26/Pages/ListReports.aspx.

59 C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 500.

60 Ibid ., p. 494.

61 On p. 494 of his article, Dolan suggests that the 2005 Guidelines “draw on a global figure and apply it unquestionably to humanitarian emergencies”. However, in a footnote on p. 492, Dolan similarly cites statistics from the United Kingdom and United States to illustrate the problem of sexual violence against boys: three in twenty and one in six respectively. Note also that the violence against women data cited to produce the one in three statistic comes from, among other places, settings that have been affected by conflict or disasters. For a review of data on violence against women, see WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research et al., above note 52.

62 C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 495.

63 Ibid ., p. 495.

64 Ibid ., p. 495.

65 See GBV Guidelines, above note 13, Annex 5, pp. 327–330.

66 C. Dolan, above note 5, p. 492.

67 GBV Guidelines, above note 13, p. 2.