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Bibliography on Sexual and Gender Based Violence
What is GBV?
Gender-based violence (GBV) is an umbrella term for any harm that is perpetrated on a person against her/his will, and that has a negative impact on the physical and/or psychological health, development, and identity of the person. The violence is the result of gendered power relationships, determined by the social roles ascribed to males and females, almost always and across all cultures disparately impacting women and children. Violence may be physical, sexual, psychological, economic, or socio-cultural. Categories of perpetrators may include family members, community members, and/or those acting on behalf of cultural, religious or state institutions. Some of the major forms of violence recognized in the U.N.'s 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women include: "battering, sexual abuse, marital rape, female genital mutilation, and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence, violence related to exploitation, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women, forced prostitution, and violence perpetrated or condoned by the state."
Recent events on the international stage have brought GBV in refugee, internal displacement and post-conflict situations to the forefront of public consciousness. Such violence is an affront to public health, to universally accepted human rights guarantees, and to the restoration of refugee and internally displaced families and communities. Attention to many aspects of GBV is needed, including research on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the problem, creation and maintenance of services for GBV survivors, education and prevention.
Who is the Bibliography For?
The bibliography is designed to improve international and local capacity to address GBV among refugee and internally displaced populations. It is intended primarily to assist GBV staff who work in refugee, IDP and post-conflict settings. Training tools, manuals, and other literature listed here have been selected specifically for their quality and relevance for work with refugee and IDP GBV survivors, though many resources may have wider applicability.
How Do I Use the Bibliography?
The bibliography on GBV has intentionally been kept simple and devoid of graphics and other features which can slow downloading and inhibit access by users with low-speed internet browsers.
The bibliography is divided into the broad sections of Prevention, Protection, Direct Services, Assessment, Monitoring & Evaluation, Sustainability, Background/Context, and Further Information. These categories are meant to encompass major GBV programming issues and are defined in the Overview section of the bibliography. Click on one of these terms to go to the full annotated bibliography of materials on that topic. Materials have been cross-referenced where appropriate for ease of access to relevant information for practitioners and other users of the bibliography. All references are organized alphabetically; where no title text is present, entries are alphabetized by organization or website. Most entry references are for English language publications; notations exist within the annotation wherever an article is available in multiple languages.
Our goal is to keep this bibliography relevant and current through periodic revision--especially regarding the inclusion of additional sustainability and non-English language references. If you know of an item that should be included or updated, please contact us at info@rhrc.org.
Ordering and Acknowledgements
The RHRC Consortium does not sell or distribute the items listed in this bibliography. To purchase anything listed here, please contact the organization or publisher noted in the individual item's annotation. Many of these documents are available free online and the relevant website links have been provided.
The bibliography was produced by the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Initiative, a project of the RHRC Consortium. The RHRC Consortium extends its sincere gratitude to the United States Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration for its financial support of the GBV Initiative.
