United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally

Omschrijving

The United States believes that preventing and responding to gender-based violence around the world is a matter of human rights, justice, equity, and equality. In 2012, the U.S. Congress first requested a “multi-year strategy to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls,” which led to the development of the first U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally. This strategy, and the subsequent update in 2016, elevated the human rights of women and girls globally as a U.S. national security, diplomatic, and foreign assistance priority. Ten years later, our commitment to this issue remains steadfast and our knowledge of best and promising practices has grown. Nonetheless, gender-based violence remains all too common around the world, including in the United States.

The global context in which we find ourselves today is different from a decade ago. New challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have exacerbated the “shadow pandemic” of gender-based violence around the world. At the same time, the growing role of technology in daily life has led women, girl, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) human rights defenders to face targeted violence. Climate-related migration and displacement has led to exacerbated risks of gender-based violence, and conflict-related sexual violence remains persistently high. As women, girls, and LGBTQI+ individuals around the world face new risks, we need to reassess our policy and diplomatic and programmatic strategies to address these challenges. At the same time, many challenges identified in the 2012 version of this strategy continue to require attention. The prevalence of gender-based violence remains high, justice and healing for survivors and accountability for perpetrators are often lacking, and the grassroots organizations working to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in their communities too often lack sufficient funding to do so.

With this third iteration of the U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally, we seek to: advance equity and inclusivity and address the factors that increase the risks of gender-based violence and undermine access to services and safety, particularly for the most marginalized groups; support comprehensive approaches for addressing gender-based violence priorities across a range of thematic areas; and strengthen the commitment and work of the U.S. government to scale what works, enhance our partnerships, and improve our capacity to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.

THE STRATEGIC CHALLENGE
Defining Gender-Based Violence Gender-Based Violence is any harmful threat or act directed at an individual or group based on actual or perceived sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, and/or lack of adherence to varying socially constructed norms around masculinity and femininity. Although individuals of all gender identities may experience gender-based violence, women, girls, and gender non-conforming individuals face a disproportionate risk of gender-based violence across every context due to their unequal status in society.

Drivers and Contexts
Gender-based violence is a human rights abuse, a form of discrimination, a manifestation of unequal power, and a public health crisis in the United States and globally. Gender-based violence is rooted in structural gender inequalities, patriarchy, and power imbalances. It has direct and indirect costs to individuals; families; communities; economies; global public health; development; and human, national, and regional security. Gender-based violence is a systemic global problem: it occurs in every country and level of society. It happens in public and private settings, including the home, work environments, transit, educational settings, and schools; criminal justice settings, including correctional facilities; the military and security sector; and digital and online spaces. Members of some populations face overlapping forms of discrimination that put them at an even higher risk of experiencing genderbased violence, including Indigenous peoples; historically marginalized racial and ethnic populations; religious minority populations; LGBTQI+ persons; persons with disabilities; older persons and widows; children and youth; low-wage and informal sector workers; migrants, refugees, and internally displaced peoples; and persons in fragile and conflict-affected states.