Human Rights Policy and Nonprofit Organizational Development

Haiti: Repro Rights After Disaster

In Policy Blog on March 9, 2010 at 12:20 pm

This is a cross-posting of the Sexual and Reproductive Rights Situation Report, a monthly column I write for Gender Across Borders. 

 

Since the devastating  7.0 earthquake shook Haiti on January 12, 2010, Haitians have dealt with shortages of basic needs like water and food; flooding; and even churchy American do-gooders coming for their children.  As in any humanitarian crisis, the women of Haiti have been struck harder and in different ways than men because of existing inequality and gender disparities.   As the humanitarian community continues to formalize and learn from its major challenges, it is paying increasing attention to women’s rights and gender issues in the post-disaster setting.  I’m going to focus more specifically on women’s reproductive and sexual rights and the ways in which they are threatened in humanitarian crises.     

 The situation for reproductive health in Haiti was already dire before the earthquake.  The country had the highest maternal death rates in the region by far, with 670 of every 100,000 deliveries resulting in the death of the mother, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).  This PBS documentary, available on Family Care International’s website, chronicles the tragedy of maternal death in Haiti, pre-quake.  The 63,000 pregnant women in Haiti when the earthquake struck are at even greater risk in the aftermath of the disaster.  According to CARE, a humanitarian relief and anti-poverty NGO active in Haiti, “breastfeeding mothers and young children are at greatest risk” after the quake.    Soon after the earthquake, Sophie Perez, CARE country director in Haiti, said:     

There are a lot of pregnant women in the streets, and mothers breastfeeding new babies.  There are also women giving birth in the street, directly in the street… the situation is very critical.

Pregnant women and other vulnerable populations may be less able to fight for scarce resources, and their unique health needs may not be met.  There are many sexual and reproductive health issues that are intensified in a humanitarian crisis.     

 

 Although each disaster is unique, the humanitarian community, including NGOs, government agencies and multilaterals, has begun to attempt to learn from previous disaster response efforts to improve upon outcomes.  After the earthquake in Haiti, dozens of NGOs coordinated to write a letter to Secretary of State Clinton and the head of USAID encouraging a gender perspective in the US’ relief efforts, and pointing to the lessons learned and documented in a seminal document- the Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action.    

In the last decade, several working groups on reproductive rights in post-conflict and post-disaster settings have formed, including the Inter-agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises.  One of its theoretical initiatives is something called the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP), which sets out to prioritize interventions at the outset of a humanitarian crisis to maximize positive reproductive health outcomes.  The Inter-agency Working Group is advocating for the MISP to be “provided within the context of other critical priorities, such as water, food, cooking fuel, and shelter,” which emphasizes the basic nature and life-or-death importance of reproductive health services.   

Another such group is the Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium (RHRC Consortium), made up of academia and NGOs including the Women’s Refugee Commission.   Much of the work on gender in humanitarian crises is based on work that these and other agencies did on the reproductive health issues for refugees and displaced persons; many of the issues are the same.   Here’s a video from the Women’s Refugee Commission on the reproductive health situation in Haiti since the earthquake:     

     

RHRC Consortium released a statement following the Haiti earthquake demanding that disaster response address the health needs of women and girls.  The statement brought up a number of sexual and reproductive health issues in the post-disaster period that I hadn’t thought of before.  In addition to the needs of pregnant women and new mothers, a holistic view of sexual and reproductive health includes access to contraceptives, responsive treatment for survivors of sexual violence including emergency contraception and post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, and continuity in ART therapies for HIV positive individuals. UNFPA and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) point out other issues including “limitations on accessing prenatal and post-natal care… greater risk of vaginal infections, pregnancy complications including spontaneous abortion, unplanned pregnancy and post-traumatic stress.”      

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence explains in a statement on Haiti:    

Women experience the most negative consequences of catastrophic events, particularly with regards to higher rates of injury and death, displacement, unemployment, increased incidents of HIV rates, sexual and domestic violence, increased poverty, and the disproportionate responsibility for caring for others. This is especially true for women marginalized by race, sexual orientation, gender identity, class, health, ability, age, housing, and legal status.     

All of these issues highlight how existing vulnerability is magnified and intensified during a humanitarian crisis.  Women are already in a position of vulnerability due to the “interaction of biological and social risk factors.”  The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies among these risk factors gender roles, social taboos around menstruation and appropriate behavior for women and girls, existing economic and social marginalization and vulnerability to domestic and sexual violence.      

 

Although women’s lives and health are often threatened in the post-disaster period, they are a tremendous resource for reconstruction.  International women’s rights NGO MADRE, along with Haitian partner Zanmi Lesante, has written on women’s expertise and the marginalization of women’s experience in reconstruction.  ”When relief is distributed by women, it has the best chance of reaching those most in need.”  It’s also more likely that real reproductive health needs will be met.      

The issue of participatory planning is front-and-center these days as NGOs plan Haiti’s future.  Oxfam has been campaigning  to push world leaders to include Haitian organizations and voices in the decision-making process during reconstruction (sign on to the campaign here).      

The Gender and Disaster Network has summed up the need for an even more nuanced view of participation that includes populations often left out of the process in their Six Principles for Engendered Relief and Reconstruction.  First, they point out, Gender analysis is “integral to plan for full and equitable recovery.”  Part of engendering reconstruction is basing program development on the true needs of women, based on gender-disaggregated data, and not on stereotypes. 

They advocate working with grassroots women’s organizations- the women who know what needs to happen to create a more just society and ensure future resilience.  GDN also points out that the act of participation, based on a human rights approach, builds conditions for empowerment and develops capacity among women. 

If disaster is not to disproportionately endanger women and girls and further entrench their social inequality and vulnerability, women’s unique needs and perspectives must be respected, accounted for and implemented in every stage of the after-disaster process of response and recovery.    

Take action: Support International Planned Parenthood Federation’s partner in Haiti, PROFAMIL, in rebuilding and providing reproductive health services; or the Global Fund for Women’s Crisis Fund which will support Haitian women’s organizations as they rebuild.

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Radio News: Story on gender-responsive aid in Haiti for WBAI

In Policy Blog on February 1, 2010 at 11:53 pm

I have been working with Fran Luck, one of the co-hosts of WBAI’s feminist program, Joy of Resistance, on news stories for several months.  Archives of the stories area available here, and below is the text of story I just recorded on gender sensitive aid and the Haiti earthquake.

Since last week’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, aid has begun to pour into the country from all over the world.  Women’s rights NGOs are raising concerns about how immediate disaster relief and the subsequent period of recovery will address the unique needs of women.

As in any disaster, the women of Haiti are affected in different and deeper ways than men because of existing discrimination and poverty.  Gender inequality raises a host of issues for disaster relief.  For example, in addition to the central pillars of immediate aid, food, water, medical care and shelter, there are needs that are specific to women, including hygiene supplies and reproductive health care.  The distribution of supplies requires careful thought if it is to be done justly and fairly.  In everything from the units of aid distribution to the distribution sites themselves, special measures must be taken to ensure women’s full inclusion and even physical safety.

Sexual and physical assault become an increasingly pressing concern for women and girls in high-stress situations, and in a post-disaster context there is not often effective civil protection.  According to Diana Duarte of MADRE, an international women’s rights NGO, women are “at increased risk of gender-based violence, especially domestic violence and rape” after a natural disaster.

As the response transitions from disaster management into rebuilding and recovery, it is increasingly important that women’s voices are heard and a gender perspective is including in planning and programs.  As the Gender and Disaster Network points out, nothing in relief is “gender neutral.”  Women are often left out of the decision-making process, and an active effort must be made to empower women to participate to ensure that the specific needs of women and girls are met.

Most of this story comes from the Feminist Peace Network (feministpeacenetwork.org) and the Gender and Disaster Network, whose website is gdnonline.org.

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Anti-gay legislation in Uganda

In Policy Blog on January 10, 2010 at 11:19 pm

This is a cross-posting of a monthly column I write for Gender Across Borders called the Sexual and Reproductive Rights Situation Report which explores policy and political issues around the world.  This month’s column focuses on proposed legislation to criminalize homosexuality in Uganda.  

The extreme anti-gay legislation was introduced in Uganda by the ruling party in the Parliament, and goes beyond the current criminalization of homosexuality in the country to impose extreme penalties for so-called “homosexual behavior.”  The original language of the bill included life imprisonment for anyone who even touches someone of the same sex with “homosexual intent,” punishment ranging from life in prison to death penalty for those who have homosexual sex, and imprisonment even for those who are aware of “homosexual activity” and fail to report it.   A Washington Post editorial  has called it “outrageous,” even without the death penalty. Hillary Clinton has joined human rights groups in condemning the law as incompatible with Uganda’s international human rights responsibilities.  Interestingly, the text of the law includes a provision to ”prohibit ratification of any international treaties, protocols, agreements and declarations which are contrary or inconsistent” with the legislation.  This language shows that the people who drafted the legislation are aware that certain provisions interfere with human rights (one proponent went so far as to say, “Homosexuals can forget about human rights”).  

One Ugandan doctor working with an international HIV/AIDS organization is outraged that he may be mandated to report gay patients, and has highlighted the “potentially devastating effects on HIV prevention and services.” Human Rights Watch has also pointed out the danger the legislation presents to free expression rights by banning the “promotion of homosexuality.”  

Global outcry: Protesters in London. Image care of the NY Daily News

According to a New York Times editorial, the existing situation for LGBT individuals in Uganda is not good: “gay Ugandans are tormented with beatings, blackmail, death threats and what has been described as ‘correctional rape.’”  The Ugandan President, vocally anti-gay, has supported the bill while urging lawmakers to soften some of its provisions, but his separation from the actual outcomes is questionable given his party’s control over the Parliament.  Part of what should make this issue particularly compelling for U.S. citizens is the role that U.S. Evangelical Christian political figures played in getting the legislation to where it is. If you’ve read Michelle Goldberg’s The Means of Reproduction, you’re familiar with the idea that the Christian Right in the U.S. has been quietly pushing an anti-sexual and reproductive rights agenda in African countries for some time. This bill is just the latest in a series of sneaky interventions by secretive organizations made up of American fundamentalism’s political elite. The Family is once such group, and it has been wielding power in the U.S. and around the world since the 1950s. Jeff Sharlet, who literally wrote the book called The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, spoke to The Advocate about connections between U.S. fundamentalists and the Ugandan anti-gay legislation.   There’s also this great interview with Rachel Maddow, where he explains the law’s connections to this shadowy fundamentalist underworld:     

via the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC

Some old friends of The Family include Reagan, the Bush family, and even congress members Stupak and Pitts (remember them?).  The Family has been influential in ensuring that USAID funds go to abstinence-only programs and not to condoms– which we all know has been catastrophic in Africa. As this NY Times editorial points out while lambasting the meddling of U.S. fundamentalists, three specific U.S. figures were in Uganda in March preaching against the “gay agenda.”  One of them is Scott Lively, who has credited “the gays” with the rise of Nazism and with engineering the Holocaust in his book, The Pink Swastika.  He has denied intentionally sowing the seeds of this law with his screeds, but the organizers of the conference that brought him to Uganda helped draft the draconian language of the bill.While Lively and his merry men have no direct connection to The Family in the U.S., the trend is still troubling.  We cannot allow fundamentalists to insinuate themselves into political decision-making.  Jeff Sharlet has suggested that President Obama refuse to attend this year’s Prayer Breakfast, a high-level event that U.S. presidents have been attending since Eisenhower.  According to Sharlet, it’s a strategic tool for The Family to build relationships and broker future political movement.  You can bet that nothing those people have in mind is going to be good for LGBTQ folks– or for women for that matter.  We must demand secular politics at home, and carefully watch fundamentalists’ involvement in other countries’ politics to protect both marginalized groups and the integrity of the political process.  

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