Attachments
Executive Summary
Similar to previous years’ reports, gender-based violence (GBV) continues to be a central component of the Syrian humanitarian crisis, and persistently affects the lives of millions of women and girls. In 2022, women and girls throughout Syria were subjected to physical violence (hitting, beating, physical injuring, torture, kidnapping, murder - including “honour” killings and femicide), psychological and emotional violence (verbal abuse, psychological manipulation and abuse), sexual violence (sexual assault, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, rape), technology- facilitated violence (sexual violence and exploitation, social violence), social violence (stigma and discrimination), as well as forced and early marriage, and denial of rights, resources, opportunities, and services (denial of education, denial of work, movement restrictions). Although mentioned less frequently, women and girls also experienced arrest and detention. These various types of violence were mostly perpetrated by male partners, male family members, and males who were unknown to the women and girls. These forms of violence are also systematically and socially normalised and accepted through patriarchal gender norms, traditions, and institutions that maintain gender inequality.
Women and girls face multiple forms of discrimination and violence based on age, ability, marital status, and displacement status. For example, displaced women and girls experience high rates of sexual violence in camps and at distribution points. They are less likely to have access to income generating opportunities and are exposed to extremely disadvantaged economic conditions. Women and girls with disabilities experience multiple forms of discrimination and stigma in public and face serious barriers to accessing services and resources. Older women suffer gender and age-based restriction of movement, confining them mostly to a domestic environment where they are often exposed to abuse and neglect. Widowed and divorced women and girls experience high rates of sexual violence and exploitation as well as barriers to services. There is no space free of GBV for women and girls, including homes, schools, markets and streets, public transportation, workplaces, camps/shelters, online, and distribution points.
Women and girls continue to face persistent levels of GBV in their everyday lives. The data collected in Syria in 2022 from this group, as well as from men and boys, includes several key findings:
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Multiple structural factors creating layers of vulnerability The continued conflict and humanitarian crisis, the ripple effects of the conflict in Ukraine, a continued economic deterioration, the lasting effects of COVID-19, and the increasing food and water crises are all structural factors which have contributed to, continued, and increased GBV against women and girls in 2022.
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Perceptions of increased risks of intimate partner violence (IPV), domestic violence, family violence, forced/ early marriage, technology-facilitated GBV (TFGBV), sexual violence, and exploitation both in public spaces and in the domestic environment Women and girls consistently shared the effects of economic deterioration and the lack of livelihood opportunities contributing to their risk of domestic violence, early marriage, TFGBV, sexual violence, and exploitation. In addition, they shared that many of these forms of violence were increasing and were linked to levels of poverty, food insecurity, and are ongoing and perpetual since displacement.
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GBV services are vital and lifesaving for women and girls Women and girls as well as GBV experts and service providers shared the vital, lifesaving importance and need for Women and Girls Safe Spaces (WGSS) throughout the Whole of Syria (WoS). The impact of these spaces is also clear in women’s and girls’ recommendations for further, consistent, and increased services.
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Women’s and girls’ resilience is still present but depleting The effects of the protraction and the multitude of aspects and consequences of the crises, and the continued increase in levels of GBV have no doubt taken their toll on the well-being and resilience of women and girls. Consistently, women and girls, as well as GBV experts, shared that rates of suicide were also increasing amongst this group.