Urgent Humanitarian Aid, Police Protection Needed for Darfur Women

By Christina LaRose, Communications Intern

August 1, 2005

Since February of 2003, the Sudanese government-supported Janjawid militia has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing against civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan. Those targeted for attacks include people belonging to the same ethnic groups as members of two rebel movements, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

As a result of these attacks, an estimated 400,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly displaced from their homes. The U.N. estimates that there are now almost one million internally displaced people in Darfur who have fled from their burned villages into refugee camps. More than 120,000 refugees have crossed the border into Chad.

Although the United States finally labeled the humanitarian crisis in Darfur "genocide" in September of 2004, the Bush administration has failed to take action commensurate with the scale of the attacks. The Declaration of Genocide in Darfur-passed by the House of Representatives on September 7, 2004-called upon the United States to assume responsibility to act to stop the genocide. But subsequent legislation, including the Darfur Accountability Act (S. 495) and the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act (HR 3127), however, has stalled in Congress as an estimated 500 people die each day.

Gender Violence in Darfur

Since the conflict began, tens of thousands of women have been displaced, raped and killed by Sudanese security forces and allied Janjawid militias. Rape and sexual violence have specifically been used to terrorize and displace rural communities. In some attacks documented by Human Rights Watch, girls as young as seven and eight years old were raped, while some women were raped and then genitally mutilated. Amnesty International reports that rape is being used as a weapon of terror and "ethnic cleansing"-some women have been raped in front of their relatives, and other women have been forced into sexual slavery.

Even after fleeing Darfur, women and girls in the refugee camps are still being raped and assaulted by civilians or militia members when collecting water, fuel or animal fodder. Médecins Sans Frontières reports that 82% of rapes are perpetrated against women searching for firewood or thatch outside of refugee camps.

These high levels of rape have led to severe health consequence, including a risk of increased transmission of HIV/AIDS, physical injuries, and severe emotional trauma. Women's access to medical treatment is curtailed by cultural norms that stigmatize women who have been raped and discourage them from seeking medical care.

Even if women do seek medical attention, however, clinics often lack the resources to provide necessary services, such as rape kits and emergency contraception. Sudanese law (Article 48) prevents doctors from treating rape victims with the morning after pill without a referral from the police department. Doctors and health personnel can be arrested for violating this law; some have even been threatened in order to prevent them from providing these services.

Even the stalled U.S. legislation addressing the genocide in Darfur does not include any provisions addressing the multiple crises facing women and children. Along with the Genocide Intervention Fund, NOW urges that Congress and the Bush administration affirm their responsibility to protect women in Darfur.

"The situation in Darfur is one of the world's most horrifying examples of ongoing gender-based violence, and yet the developed world is not responding adequately. Congress must act to stop the rapes, sex trafficking, genital mutilation and other atrocities that occur on a daily basis by providing critical funding to expand police protection, increase humanitarian aid and address the longer term needs of displaced families in Darfur," said NOW President Kim Gandy.

NOW supports amendments to Senate Foreign Operations Authorizations bill that would address the wide array of women's critical needs-from treatment for rape survivors, funding for emergency contraceptives and rape kits (to collect evidence for future prosecution) and the deployment of more African Union troops to camps that lack sufficient protections for women. There is also a great need for specialized training for troops in dealing with sexual assault, and increased refugee aid-especially for food, clean water, and medical supplies.