BRUSSELS, Belgium — Doctors and social service providers from countries affected by conflict today called for greater resources to support women and children suffering from sexual violence. In heart-wrenching testimonies, they highlighted the long-term consequences of such violence, which they said required medical, social, legal and psychological services to help victims regain control of their lives. The pleas came during day two of the first International Symposium on Sexual Violence in Conflict, sponsored by the Government of Belgium, the European Commission and the UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
In one of the most harrowing presentations, Dr. Jean Pascal Manga of the Democratic Republic of the Congo said girls as young as one had been raped by foreign objects such as metal bars, nails and sticks. “Green wood from the manioc plant had caused a great many problems creating fistulas especially in very young girls,” he said.
Traumatic fistulas occur when tissues are ruptured during violent rape, leaving passages that constantly leak urine or faeces or both. (UNFPA is also active in addressing obstetric fistula, which is an injury of childbearing).
Dr. Manga said treatment of rape and associated conditions had led doctors and other medical personnel into a new kind of medicine for which they were not prepared. “No one knew that you would find a fistula in a small girl under five years old, even as young as one year old,” he said. “We face new conditions, and we need exchanges with our western colleagues to treat these problems.”
He said there were about 25,000 women and girls who were raped and needed continuing support. “In Africa, once a woman has been raped, she may be abandoned by her entire family, and when she has a fistula and smells of urine, no one wants to be around her,” he explained. Among the 226 cases of fistula from rape, about 20 per cent of surgeries were a failure.
Dr. Manga told participants that 90 per cent of women and girls who were raped had some kind of sexually transmitted infection and nearly 10 per cent were HIV positive. He said doctors like himself struggled to treat raped children with post-exposure medication to prohibit HIV infection, but it was difficult to reduce the dosage to suit their size. “The HIV positive children are malnourished and neglected,” he said, “and even if we do adjust the dose, the children may overdose because they are weak.” He appealed for international support to alleviate the shortage of drugs and medical supplies, provide much needed training, and rebuild damaged hospitals and clinics.
In another presentation, Feryal Thabet, of the Bureij Women’s Health Center in Gaza, said the border closure with Israel and escalating conflict were causing a deterioration of women’s health and an increase in violence against women.
“More than one third of Palestinian pregnant women are anaemic,” she said. “Early marriage is on the rise and so is high-risk pregnancy.”
Ms. Thabet said antenatal visits to the centre were decreasing and 80 per cent of women did not receive any post-natal care in 2005. “There were 61 births at checkpoints with no medical assistance,” she noted. Citing rising unemployment and poverty, Ms. Thabet said that the increased vulnerability of women and unsafe sex was coupled with a lack of access to appropriate care and shortages of supplies, including contraceptives.
The symposium, which involves government, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations, is set to issue a call to action to address the needs of survivors of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations.
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Contact Information:
UNFPA Brussels: David Del Vecchio, tel. +32 (0) 498 62 45 09, delvecchio@unfpa.org; or Angela Walker, tel. +32 (0) 479 85 48 25, awalker@unfpa.org;
UNFPA New York: Omar Gharzeddine, tel. +1 212-297-5028, gharzeddine@unfpa.org
European Commission: Norbert Sagstetter, tel. +32 (0) 2 299 2848, norbert.sagstetter@cec.eu.int
Government of Belgium: Erik Silance, tel. + 32 (0) 475 75 62 88, erik.silance@diplobel.fed.be