Turkey has been all over the news lately because of recent populist protests that were met with tear gas and a harsh government response. Environmental activists in Istanbul began protesting after plans were announced regarding Gezi Park. The government plans to remove trees and develop it into a shopping center and ceremonial military barracks. After peaceful protesters were evicted from the park, issues of freedom of assembly and freedom of expression emerged, and the protests have broadened into more general anti-government protests. Citizens have been protesting what they see as “creeping Islamisation” of the Recep Tayyip Erdogan regime, whose conservative AKP party (standing for Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, or the Justice and Development Party) has been in power for a decade. The government has been seen as becoming more conservative and authoritarian over the course of its rule. Recently, laws curbing the use of alcohol were passed. Additionally, there has been much opposition to the government’s stance on Syria. Erdogan has staunchly supported the Syrian opposition, polarizing Turkey. Many Turks believe this support will cause the Syrian government to retaliate and harm Turkey. These protests have called for Erdogan’s resignation.

Unlike previous anti-government protests in Turkey hosted by a singular ethnic group or ideology, these protests have shown a wide range of the civilian body. As Whit Mason of Foreign Policy stated, “Turkey has become a much more liberal society” over the past ten years. In that vein, it will be interesting to see how the next few months unfold, especially given Turkey’s 2014 elections.

The Turkish government has already made some political changes since the Arab Spring began in 2011. Mesut Özcan, Bulent Aras, and Saban Kardas of the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s Strategic Research Center spoke recently on the shift in Turkey’s foreign policy since the Arab Spring at the Wilson Center event “Turkey and the Arab Spring.” For Turkey, the Arab Spring forced a recalibration of foreign policy. Özcan spoke of a specific shift – pre-Arab Spring, Turkey attempted to develop good economic and political ties with all neighboring countries. With the Arab Spring came polarization of regional actors, he said, which has made it more difficult to maintain a fairly neutral regional position. This is especially implicated in the context of the Sunni and Shi’a blocs in the region. According to Özcan, Aras, and Kardas, it is no longer possible for Turkey to try to mediate between the two blocs. Instead, they are forced to pick a side. This is relevant in the context of Syria. Turkey and Syria both have a Sunni majority. However, relations between the two nations have long been strained due to Syria’s relationship with the PKK (a Kurdish party that supports an autonomous Kurdistan), water disputes, and Syria’s support for the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA). Relations have become even more tense since the Syrian conflict began, as refugees flood  into Turkey and as Assad has recently criticized the Erdogan government for his response to the protests.

It was announced on Friday that due to the proof of the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons, the United States will be boosting its military support of the main opposition group, the SMC. Erdogan has previously called for multilateral intervention in Syria, and it will be interesting to see what his response is to the change in U.S. policy.

Turkey is a dynamic country that promises many changes in the coming months. On Friday, Erdogan adopted a more conciliatory tone for the protesters. However, as of this morning, Erdogan and the government have threatened to deploy the army to end the unrest. When speaking to a crowd of supporters over the weekend, he referred to the unrest as “nothing more than the minority’s attempt to dominate the majority.”  The results of these protests remain unclear, and are certainly something to follow. If you are interested in learning more about Turkey and its international relationships, Jadaliyya is a good spot to look. For more specifics on the protests, check out Crisis Group’s blog or Al Jazeera’s live blog here.

United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNECOSOC) president Nestor Osorio will announce a compromise this week by which Sudan will not head the humanitarian segment at the council, as previously planned, and instead take on a different role. The Sudanese government has paid $516,085 to the United Nations to reinstate its voting rights after being suspended over the accumulation of financial arrears.

Israel deported at least 1,000 Sudanese refugees to North Sudan without informing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and despite the fact that “[Sudan] has vowed to punish any of its citizens who ever set foot in Israel.” Government doctors amputated a man’s right hand and left foot by court order in Khartoum on February 14, 2013, in violation of the absolute prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishments, four human rights groups said Wednesday.

Renewed clashes in North Darfur between Abbala and Beni Hussein tribesmen have “highlighted once more the vulnerability of civilians in the area” killing 50 people in the past week. Meanwhile, those who fled their homes due to last month’s hostilities between the tribes are still living under trees, by creeks or in the outskirts of the town. The UN estimates that 100,000 people were displaced in connection with the clashes over control of a gold mine in Jebel Amer on 5 January. They stated this is the largest forced displacement in Darfur in years.

Members of the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) that signed the Doha peace agreement with the government of Sudan clashed with pro-government militias at a market in North Darfur.

Also, the military spokesman of the Sudan Liberation Movement-Abdel Wahid (SLM-AW) disclosed that 23 children died of diarrhea after drinking water polluted by toxic bombs following last week’s bombings in South Jebel Marra, Central Darfur.

Crimes against humanity have been taking place in Darfur for the past ten years. Join STAND and our partner organizations in calling on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UNSC, and the African Union to bring relief, peace, and justice to Darfur by visiting http://www.darfur10.com/.

South Sudan

A child protection survey was launched in Unity State in South Sudan. The state’s minister for gender, child welfare and social development, Lubna Abdelgani, said Tuesday that the issue of girl’s being forced to marry before they are of a mature age needs to addressed. The survey will take place in all 10 South Sudanese states. Voices of America published an article on GBV in South Sudan.  The article explains the violence faced by women including rape and beatings, the lack of choice they have in terms of choosing husbands, and their lack of rights and capacities to seek redress for their grievances.

The deputy speaker of South Sudan’s parliament has backed calls for the young nation toadopt a leaner more efficient government that would better able to provide the services needed by the population.

Syria

On Tuesday, fighting intensified near the historic Umayyad Mosque in the Old City of Aleppo. Clashes also erupted near a police academy that has become a government military base west of Aleppo. Increased fighting in southern Syria as well has led to a surge in refugees fleeing across the border to Jordan. In the past few days, about 3,000 Syrians have fled to Jordan per night. Syrian activist groups have been working to collect evidence of human rights abuses as the conflict continues. These groups met in Turkey in January where they launched the National Preparatory Committee for Transitional Justice. The Committee is collecting all dates and information available from all Syrian activist groups.

Syrian rebels have agreed to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the international “Friends of Syria” meeting in Rome after initially rebuffing the offer.  The shift in rebel stance comes in light of a pledge from Secretary Kerry to increase non-lethal support for the rebels. While assistance so far has been limited to communications and logistical support, it may be magnified to include meals and medical supplies. The rebels have also refused an offer from the Assad regime to meet for talks. Free Syrian Army’s (FSA) Chief of Staff Selim Idriss stated the FSA would not meet with Assad until “all the killing stops, or before the army withdraws from the cities”. The Assad regime has agreed to renew passports of Syrian citizens overseas, one of two conditions put forward last month by opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib to meet with the Assad regimes for talks.

In an apparent change in policy, Saudi Arabia has begun supplying rebels with armspurchased in Croatia. These arms began arriving to Syria in December in shipments sent through Jordan. The arms may have contributed to rebel gains this past winter. On Wednesday, Iraqi minister Hadi al-Amiri declared that Turkish and Qatari support for “al Qaeda (in Syria) . . . is a declaration of armed action against Iraq.” Al-Amiri is the transport minister and the head of the formerly armed militant group Badr Organization. Sectarian tensions have been rising in Iraq, especially in the Sunni stronghold of Anbar bordering Syria, where protests have recently been staged against the Shi’ite-led government and al-Qaeda linked militants appear to be regrouping.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ahead of last weekend’s peace talks in Addis Ababa, the UN urged the UNSC to authorize an additional military brigade force within the current peacekeeping forces to respond to the unstable security situations caused by violence in Katanga and the Kivus. In Katanga province in the southeast of the country, approximately 316,000 people have been displaced by the activities of Mayi Mayi leader Gédéon.

A peace agreement was finally signed by regional governments on Sunday, February 24,including Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, DRC, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Rwanda President Paul Kagame welcomed the agreement, which he says has been a collaborative regional effort, addresses multi-faceted root causes, and will serve not as an end result of a peace process, but as a step in the right direction. A group of prominent Congolese and international NGOs welcomed the agreement, but support additional measures, including the appointment of a high-profile UN Special Envoy to mediate on a domestic and regional level, the inclusion of Congolese civil society and Congo’s donor partners in oversight mechanisms, and the tying of donor aid to benchmarks and collaboration between government, donors, and civil society.

Ugandan forces have deployed on the DRC-Uganda border following renewed fighting between Mai Mai rebels and M23 rebels in Nyamirima. The two groups are fighting for control of the borderline, which the Mai Mai claims to be their ancestral land. Large numbers of Congolese continue to flee their homes and seek refuge in Uganda.

Yesterday, MONUSCO reported heavy fighting near its base in North Kivu between Congolese armed forces and elements of the Alliance des Patriotes pour un Congo Libre et Souverain (APCLS). At least one civilian was killed and nine others injured, including one of MONUSCO’s peacekeepers. A decision on further UN troops is expected after Ban Ki-moon briefs the Council on recent developments related to the DRC, including the signing of the peace agreement.

Burma

Fearing greater conflict in Kachin State, China has been conducting military exercises in neighboring Yunnan Province to bolster border security. Although the military exercises happen each year, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua described the military exercises in Yunnan as training for “real combat to increase their capacity to control the border.” China is due to host peace talks in the town of Ruili next month between the Myanmar military and Kachin Independence Army to bring about an end to the conflict, which has displaced more than 100,000 people.

In other news, on Friday, February 22, the United States “relaxed” sanctions on four large Burmese banks as a reward for the country’s recent democratic reforms.

Syrian state media reported two mortar shell explosions near a presidential palace on Tuesday. The palace, one of three in Damascus, hosts visiting dignitaries but is not a residence of President Assad. Syrian state media and the Associated Press reported a mortar strike near Tishreen stadium this Wednesday, killing one footballer and injuring several others. On Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 31 people were killed in a surface-to-air missile strike on a residential area in Aleppo. Opposition sources also reported 50 people killed in Damascus suburbs on Tuesday, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike on Hamouriyeh. The Assad regime has reported that the Aleppo airport remains in government hands, despite facing “intensive attacks by gunmen.”

Kurdish militias and Arab anti-regime rebels reached an agreement to cease three months of hostilities that began when Islamist groups entered Ras al-Ain in November, seizing a crossing on the Turkish border. The FSA signed the agreement on behalf of all rebel groups except Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra, which took part in the talks and favored the agreement. The second most powerful Islamist group in the area, Ghuruba al-Sham, also supported the agreement. Under this agreement, all military forces are to be withdrawn from the city and Kurdish fighters are to join the anti-Assad rebels. On Wednesday, theFSA warned Hezbollah militants that if they do not stop fighting with the Syrian regime within 48 hours, they “will respond to the sources of fire by our hands and eliminate it from inside the Lebanese lands.” Former Lebanese information minister and parliament member Michel Samaha and Syrian Major General Ali Mamlouk have been indicted with charges of planning terrorist attacks inside Lebanon. Lebanese authorities are seeking the death penalty for both men.

The Arab League and Russia proposed on Wednesday to broker talks between anti-government rebels and the Assad regime. The Arab League and Russia are working to establish direct contact between the opposition and the Syrian regime, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Khatim is scheduled to visit Russia on Monday and opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib is expected in March. Russia also dispatched two planes to Syria to evacuate its citizens and sent four warships to the Mediterranean, which a military source said might be used for a future evacuation of Russian citizens.

United Nations agencies have warned of a ‘humanitarian tragedy’ in Syria, including in the rebel-held north, an area that aid workers are largely unable to reach and which is currently suffering a typhoid outbreak. Human Rights Watch called for the Syrian government to allow aid to cross all borders on February 11, and announced that donors should increase support for NGOs already bringing aid across the border with Turkey into opposition-held areas.  An independent team at the UN announced on Monday that Syrians on both sides of the conflict have committed war crimes and urged the UN Security Council to hold perpetrators accountable, possibly by prosecution at the International Criminal Court.

Sudan

This week, an ongoing military offensive by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the Blue Nile State has so far forced thousands to flee into South Sudan.  Dozens of SPLM-N rebels were killed in the aerial bombardments, leading the government of Sudan to claim that it liberated the area. One source is quoted as saying, “The Sudan air force is bombarding the whole southern Blue Nile every hour.” Despite a deal reached in September of last year between Sudan and South Sudan, the two nations have failed to create a demilitarised border buffer zone, largely because Sudan accuses the government of South Sudan of supporting the SPLM-N rebels that it continues to fight. However the SPLM-N this week has offered to negotiate a ceasefire with the Sudanese government to allow for the introduction of humanitarian relief.

Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir visited Chad this weekend, and despite being obligated as a signatory of the Rome Statute to arrest him, the Chadian government allowed him to return home freely. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bashir in 2009, charging him with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Darfur

Despite the UN passing an arms embargo on Sudan last week, there are many weaknesses to the current Security Council resolutions for Sudan. Eric Reeves writes of the importance of a stricter policy towards the government’s perpetual acts of violence towards its own citizens in Darfur, highlighting the recent escalation of violence in Darfur in the past week including:

• Aerial bombardment by the government of Sudan.
• An outbreak of fires with mysterious causes destroying dozens of homes.
• Kidnapping by armed gunmen.
• Humanitarian crises at IDP camps in Darfur due to a lack of security, medical care, and food.
• The shelling of Gidu village in West Jebel Marra, Central Darfur by the Sudanese government, killing 12 civilians on Thursday and displacing thousands.
• The rape of displaced women by pro-government militias.
• Settling into the homes of the displaced in Darfur by pro-government camel herders.

Simultaneous anti-government violence persists. Last week a joint rebel offensive killed 87 SAF soldiers. Lastly, the government of Sudan was accused of harboring fugitive Islamist Malian rebels in Darfur after JEM forces witnessed them in the region.

South Sudan

There has been an outbreak of hepatitis E that has affected more than 6,000 people in South Sudan refugee camps since July, killing 111.

South Sudan’s government this week was accused of detaining scores of opposition figures without issuing arrest warrants or giving them access to lawyers since unrest broke out in a northwestern town in December. The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) just released a publication concerning the rise of undemocratic tendencies of the South Sudanese government.  Examples include the persecution of journalists, the lack of progress on developing a constitution, and several acts of violence towards UN peacekeepers. (USIP also released a publication last week on the economic pressures building in Sudan).

South Sudan recently retired over 100 generalsas part of a sweeping restructuring of the former rebel force, in a move partly aimed at demilitarizing the fledgling nation’s government.  The move is considered a positive step towards separating civilians and members of the military in the government.

Burma

On Thursday, February 2, MSF claimed it was being denied access to some groups of Rohingya in Rakhine State by government officials. MSF is only allowed to visit the Rohingya IDP camps one day a week. Because the predominantly Muslim Rohingya are viewed by the Myanmar government as illegal Bengali migrants, the Rohingya, even when seriously ill, are not permitted to travel outside the camps to seek treatment. Since June 2012, nearly 110,000 people have been displaced due to ongoing violence between the Rohingya and Rakhine people. MSF has been accused by the Myanmar government of favoring the Rohingya over the Rakhine. A United Nations peace envoy recently criticized the government about continuing human rights violations throughout the country despite recent democratic reforms, citing ongoing instances of torture, arbitrary arrests, and lack of basic rights and health care for the Rohingya.

Last week, opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said she is willing to mediate peace talks between the Myanmar government and Burma’s various ethnic nationalities, particularly the ongoing conflict in Kachin State. The announcement was made on Tuesday, February 12, which is Union Day in Burma, a day that celebrates Suu Kyi’s father, Aung San, who signed an agreement with Burma’s ethnic nationalities to seek independence from the British. The Kachin, as well as other ethnic nationalities in Burma, pursue the right of self-determination, which is denied under Burma’s current constitution.

Representatives from the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) met with Myanmar officials on Tuesday, February 19, the day prior to a larger peace talk. The two parties agreed to meet for the first time in Burma’s capital Naypyidaw sometime in the near future to gain trust and discuss the continuation of a ceasefire in northern Shan State between the Myanmar military and the RCSS’s armed wings, Shan State Army North and Shan State Army South. Recent violence in Shan State has threatened to undermine the ceasefire agreement.

On Wednesday, February 20, representatives from the Myanmar government met with members of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The UNFC is an umbrella organization that represents many ethnic nationalities of Burma, including the Kachin, which has been involved in bitter conflict with the Myanmar military since June 2011. Yet, it was reported that no Myanmar military officials would take part in the meeting. In a joint statement, the peace talks were described as “frank and friendly”. No major developments were reached about the ongoing violence in Kachin State, with the dialogue being defined as “very informal” in a tweet by Al Jazeera correspondent Wayne Hay.  The Myanmar government and UNFC did, however, engage in discussion for the first time on how to supply humanitarian aid to ethnic areas.

On Monday, February 10th, Burma observed US-led military exercises in Thailand as part of the two countries’ closer diplomatic relationship. The joint military exercise, codenamed “Cobra Gold” is the largest of its kind in Asia.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The International Center for Transitional Justice has highlighted four military court casesinvolving dozens of Congolese citizens, human rights violations, and an outstanding $1 million in unpaid reparations owed by the government. In each case, egregious crimes were carried out by the Congolese government.

Security forces have caused 53,000 people to flee Punia in Eastern DRC in Katanga Province due to harassment and threats. Punia is near a large mining site that has been victim to clashes between government forces and Mai Mai rebels. The World Food Programme has had trouble delivering food aid to the area, because of the lack of storage facilities and transportation issues. WFP flew into the area on February 15, bringing 20 tons of food, which they said would feed 8,000 people for five days. MSF is having trouble medically assisting victims of violence in Katanga Province as well.

On February 11, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson called for a global effort to help the DRC. “The first step is for the DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and other countries in the region to sign a United Nations Framework Agreement on the deployment of a joint U.N. and African Union force in the DRC. Then, a comprehensive peace process needs to be launched, involving local communities, especially in the Kivu region of eastern DRC, civil society groups and international organizations. He said because of the size and complexity of the challenges, a senior, high-level U.N. envoy is needed to coordinate the work.” Last week, STAND students across the country called on President Obama to appoint an envoy to the peace process.

Hundreds of thousands of IDPs remain in DRC because of decades-long violence in the east. There are many issues with the often-impromptu IDP camps, writes Caelin Briggs, as they are often unsupported by the UNHCR or the Congolese government. Hunger remains a huge issue for many. Taylor Toeka Kakala writes, however, of IDPs helped by programs run by Caritas International to grow their own food from the IDP camps. About 30,000 people are affected by the program, able to grow crops to sustain themselves.

With the end of the ceasefire in 2011 between the KIA (Kachin Independence Army) and the national Burmese army*, fighting in the Kachin State has escalated across the vast province. Though peace talks have taken place recently in the Chinese border town of Ruili, the effects of this violence have destroyed lives and endangered the livelihoods of thousands of Kachin people living in the region. Additionally, the Palaung people in the Northeast Shan State of Burma have also suffered decades of fighting, increased food, education, and healthcare costs, as well as military seizures of land. The vulnerabilities of these minority groups (especially women) have intensified despite the political reforms coming from Naypyidaw.

Due to these various compounding factors, these states along the Sino-Burmese border have become a perfect breeding ground for the trafficking of women and girls into China’s Yunnan Province. Over the past 15 years, migration to China has increased as economic opportunities in towns such as Ruili have exploded. Once thought of as the “Wild West” of China, these border towns were the centers for the sex industry, drug trafficking, gambling, and a lucrative jade market. The local government has swiftly cracked down on these illicit activities (especially in Ruili) in the recent decade. However, there has emerged another lucrative market in the region, namely—women trafficked to become brides for Chinese men.

As with several other rapidly developing nations, China has experienced extraordinary demographic changes in the past three decades. In addition to an aging population, there exists in China an aggregate gender imbalance. This imbalance exists in various regional contexts, and has had its most extreme manifestations in rural areas. Due to land reform, the One Child Policy, the proliferation of ultra-sounds, and the overwhelming dependence on son to carry on the family name, the sex ratio at birth in some regions is greatly skewed (in some areas the imbalance is as high as 130 males per every 100 females). Traditional means of securing a bride is no longer available for some men, particularly those living in poor villages. Ruili’s location on the border between Yunnan and Burma acts as a gateway for women to be trafficked into Yunnan and then out to different provinces across the country.

Two Burmese NGOs, the Palaung Women’s Association and the Kachin Women’s Association, have been working in Thailand to document these cases of human trafficking. As with a large number of trafficking cases, traffickers are able to take advantage of the relative poverty of those victims who they wish to sell. Many young women living in the Palaung and Kachin areas of Burma are told that they will be able to find good jobs in prosperous China and send money home to their families. These women enter China, often without documentation, and are sold to Chinese families who need a wife and heir. Once in China, these women do not have access to many public services, can suffer abuse at the hands of their new husbands, or be forced to work without wages in various industries.

Both the Burmese and Chinese governments have established National Plans of Action against Trafficking of Women and Children; however, the root causes of this problem, especially in Burma, have yet to be addressed. The causes of trafficking can be complex, incorporating gender relations, conflict environments, economic resource allocation, globalization, proliferation of crime networks, and poverty–to name a few. In this light, human trafficking is an intolerable symptomatic of various forms of oppression. As a starting point, there must be awareness that a main factor pushing these women in the hands of traffickers is the lack of opportunities in their home cities or villages. An end to the fighting in the Kachin State and a focus on more equitable economic investment by foreign, private, and government entities should be the priority for those working for positive change in Burma.

*Note: “Burmese” here does not explicitly mean the Burmese ethnic group.

Warning: Some of the content below may be triggering.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Sexual and gender-based violence is endemic in the DRC, though numbers are hard to come by because of the social stigma if being associated with sexual violence and the acquiescence of many to domestic violence. Many issues remain in cases of sexual assault–most alleged perpetrators are released directly after their court hearing and those imprisoned can escape or bribe their way out. With this in mind, there are few incentives for women to report cases of sexual violence. There have been numerous reports about sexual and gender-based violence in the DRC, results differing from report to report. Melanie Teff takes a look into issues with collecting data, and stresses that solutions to sexual violence must be addressed within a strategy that addresses wider issues of violence against women and issues of gender inequality in the country.

Reports of sexual violence abound in reports from camps around the Goma area following violence between government forces and M23 rebels. As we often see in Darfuri refugee and IDP camps, security for women seeking firewood or food is very low, and often leads to sexual attacks. Even within the camp, security is an issue. “Violence is omnipresent,”said MSF psychologist Marie Jacob. “It is a violence based on power, the law of the strongest, the law of the person with a weapon.”

Though the data varies, one thing is for sure–sexual violence is a huge issue in the country, and has become a day-to-day occurrence for many women (and also a number of boys and men). As Congolese women take a stand against sexual violence, we must listen to their stories, hopes, and dreams, as they work to create the communities that they envision for themselves.

Burma

“Rape is used in my country as a weapon against those who only want to live in peace, who only want to assert their basic human rights, especially in the areas of the ethnic nationalities. Rape is rife. It is used as a weapon by the armed forces to intimidate the ethnic nationalities and to divide our country.”

—Nobel Laureate and Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi

Many conflicts in Burma, both past and present, are sharply divided between ethnic lines, with rape being an all too common weapon of choice, particularly for the Myanmar military. Not only does rape perpetuate these ethnic divides, it unfairly places innocent civilians in harm’s way and gives them injuries that can last a lifetime. More recently, rape has been an all too common element of the country’s recent conflicts in Rakhine and Kachin States. In fact, the the conflict in Rakhine State was initially triggered by an alleged rape-murder of a Rakhine woman by several Rohingya men.

In addition, Burma’s new constitution, which transitioned the country from a military dictatorship to a quasi-civilian democracy in 2010, offers no legal ramifications for perpetrators of sexual violence. Myanmar’s military is placed outside the jurisdiction of civilian courts, and the constitution grants full amnesty for rape and other war crimes committed by the military. This directly violates international law and offers no justice for the victims.

Syria

Rape has become so widespread as a weapon of war in Syria that refugee families in Lebanon and Jordan are now citing it as their primary reason for fleeing the conflictaccording to a recent report by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). These rapes sometimes involve multiple attackers and often occur in front of family members. Cases involving kidnapping, rape, torture, and finally murder have also been reported. Unfortunately, stigma surrounding rape makes it difficult for survivors to report these incidents. The IRC report revealed that survivors fear retribution from attackers, being murdered out of shame by family members, and being married off prematurely to safeguard the honor of young female victims.

The work of the Women Under Siege project has helped make information on sexual and gender based violence in Syria more available despite these stigmas. The project documents cases of rape as they occur using crowdsourcing. The data collected by this project is collected into a “crowdmap”, displaying incidents of sexual violence as dots on the map proportional to the amount of reports emerging from those areas. The reports collected by the Women Under Siege project are sent to public health researchers at Columbia University to be analyzed. These researchers have of course confirmed the widespread nature of rape as a weapon of war in Syria. They have also noted that victims of sexual violence have been male as well as female.

The IRC report recommends “[addressing] violence against Syrian women and girls”through increasing funding to programs that “prevent and respond to violence against women and girls, inside and outside of camps” through “clinical care and emotional support for survivors, improving safety in camps, minimizing survival sex, forced marriage, and domestic violence and providing economic aid so that women do not revert to exploitative jobs”. The horrifically widespread nature of sexualized violence against women in Syria and stigmas associated with female rape victims make a focus on treating women extremely important.

At the same time, it is important not to support or create any stigmas about male rape and sexual violence victims. While male victims are unlikely to find the same stigmatic problems of honor killings or premature marriages, we should avoid adding to any inner feelings of shame or barriers to access that will stop male victims from seeking treatment. Some of the recommendations for female victims, such as making clinical care and emotional support more easily available, should be applied to male victims as well.

Sudan

In Darfur, sexual violence takes place as women flee their homes and villages, within IDP camps and within the home. Women have been raped and attacked when going out to fetch firewood, find grass or straw to sell, build homes, or farm and mill. As conflict has continued over the years, there have been increased reports of violence inside the IDP camps, including domestic violence and women’s involvement in high risk activities.

Beyond SGBV, women are severely discriminated against within the social institutions of Sudan.  The country ranks 85 out of 86 in the 2012 Social Institutions and Gender Index.

South Sudan

The United States Institute of Peace writes of the importance of South Sudan’s incorporation of women in the young South Sudanese government and gives advice on how to target women’s issues. It recommends that the government of South Sudan, with the support of regional partners and the international community, should ensure that gender equality and women’s rights are fully integrated into and are outcomes of state building. National planning, developing the permanent constitution, and building the country’s new institutions and structures should reflect commitments to gender equality and input from women and women’s groups across South Sudan. The government should cost and meet the full budgetary needs of the Ministry of Gender, Child, and Welfare; ratify and implement the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; strengthen efforts to prevent SGBV and address the needs of SGBV victims and survivors; and invest more in quality and accessible health and education.

In addition, USIP calls for the inclusion of women in all implementation bodies of the new cooperation deal on security, wealth sharing, and logistical issues, including citizenship and cross-border travel. Women are the most significantly impacted by the deal because they are the least legally protected by the government, and they need the most support due to their role in the family, so it is important to link women’s civil society organizations with implementation bodies as well.  Furthermore, efforts must include men so that the entire community can work together equally to achieve their common goals.

Lastly, USIP recommends that donors leverage their roles to promote the meaningful inclusion of women by stipulating that their funds be used in a way that specifically targets the inclusion, transportation, and protection of women in Sudan.