The Invisible Army of Women Fighting Sexual Violence in Colombia

In India “more than 75 000 cases of cruelty by husbands or relatives against women were registered in 2009.” There are no general, medical guidelines for doctors to follow when examining victims of sexual assault. An NGO, and a crisis center for violence against women in India, are filling in the gaps. They have trained doctors, nurses, provided rape kits, and offered a model for setting up crisis centers.

Groups of women, in collaboration with local charity organization Daughters of Charity, are working together to create HAL (helpful active listening) circles to help survivors of sexual and gender-based violence heal. HAL circles are women-to-women groups led by those trained in supportive communication skills, the effects of trauma on the mind and body and healthy coping methods. Over the past several years, the group has connected with 1,320 survivors.

Among the many restorative justice programs in the U.S., the Domestic Violence Safe Dialogue program was one of the few to arrange face-to-face dialogue between survivors and men who had violently abused women. This form of surrogate dialogue – the pairings are between strangers – helps two people who want to change but can't do it alone. After extensive preparation and led by a facilitator, the meeting gives survivors a way to hear they were not to blame for the harm done to them, and for the men to admit responsibility and help someone else in ways that traditional punitive justice often cannot.

The story of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act starts with a young legal aide to Sen. Joe Biden who did not identify as a feminist and knew little about the issues, but whose methodical building of a coalition and a set of arguments led to the historic passage of the law in 1994. VAWA was the first U.S. federal law to address comprehensively the ancient problem of gender-based violence. A key provision, authorizing federal civil lawsuits by victims, helped many women for six years until the Supreme Court struck it down. The law's other effects, still ongoing, include funding victim-aid groups.

Human trafficking has become an increasingly prevalent problem, especially in states such as Florida that host a large tourist population. To better serve the victims, Miami-Dade County has created a trauma-focused court that directs adolescents to support services rather than prostitution charges.

The recent revival of feminism, in tandem with increased awareness about violence and sexual abuse, and combined with the power of social media to organize activist groups, is helping various advocacy groups address the serious issues faced by women and minorities, specifically Latina women, in the Los Angeles area. Organizations from anti-gentrification cycling groups to rape crisis hotline dispatchers are combining resources to combat violence against women, provide more comprehensive legal and human services, help victims get a new start, and change the culture of abuse for good.

Hope Center offers free medical services, including psychosocial and counseling services, for victims of sexual and gender-based violence. The Center also collaborates with the legal system to work to achieve justice for survivors.

The Basic Rights Counsel Initiative provides free legal representation, emergency shelter, and psychological support to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria's Cross River state. In a country where prosecutions can be hampered by ineffective or under-resourced institutions, the organization has filed 822 court cases and secured 30 arrests and convictions.

Colorado’s Address Confidentiality Program (ACP) helps survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse keep their physical addresses private. Registering to vote requires an address, which is part of the public record. The ACP program can also be used to enroll children in schools, on their driver’s licenses, and in court. ACP works with the postal service to create ghost addresses for survivors and it serves as the only place where the addresses are known. Four thousand people are currently using the service and up to 9,000 have used it since it began.

The number of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada is high, so a group of Indigenous women formed an organization called Power Our Women (POW) to teach other Indigenous women across the country self-defense skills. Participants talk about their cultures, learn physical self-defense, build confidence, and learn situational awareness. Participants describe the program as healing but difficult. POW has now reached more than 5,000 women across Canada, including remote areas in northern Manitoba.