For my ACHIEVE fellowship, I am exploring domestic-level barriers to individual accountability for sexual violence in low- and middle- income countries.
Sexual violence is an international public health concern, given it takes place in every nation and often results in severe physical and mental health consequences for survivors and their communities1,2. Accountability is generally considered a key facet of violence prevention. Yet, most acts of sexual violence are perpetrated without consequence3. When survivors seek justice, they must navigate multiple systems (including law enforcement, health and forensics, legal proceedings), which all must adequately align and act.
The short-term goal of this work is to better understand the landscape of perpetrator impunity for sexual violence, and the long-term goal is to inform evidence-based policy and interventions to prevent impunity and improve care and safety for survivors.
The project has several parts: first, a systematic review of domestic-level barriers to accountability for sexual violence; second, interviews with experts and practitioners (to triangulate findings and ensure their utility in practice). We also aim for longitudinal community engagement.
What have the past few months involved?
Firstly, with the assistance of the Brown School library team, we began by creating a comprehensive search strategy to incorporate the various relevant disciplines. This search went through several rounds of development and refinement. After refinement, we published the review protocol, undertook the final search, recruited and trained a small team, and began screening abstracts (in parallel submitting the IRB application for subsequent project stages). Presently we are beginning to review full texts.
So far, it has been busy, and a brilliant opportunity to begin learning how to aggregate cross-sectoral, cross-disciplinary findings to develop practice-level theory and inform policy.
References:
1. Accountability as Prevention, Ending Cycles of Sexual Violence in Conflict (Women and Peace and Security) – Security Council, 9016th Meeting | UN Web TV. (2022).
2. World Health Organization. Violence against Women. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women (2021).
3. Seelinger, K. & Freccero, J. The Long Road: Accountability for Sexual Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings. 1–96 https://humanrights.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/publications/accountability_report_2015_final_web2.pdf (2015).