Hello.

The current times are times of despair and disturbance. And we all must pray for those who are getting oppressed, invaded, left in despair, being killed, homeless and grieving. We have reached a level of utmost inhumanity, ill-usage of power and fighting against the peace for the personal means. It is historically evident that war, conflicts and situations of instability aggravate pre-existing patterns of discrimination against women and girls, exposing them to heightened risks of violations of their human rights.

Conflict can result in higher levels of gender-based violence against women and girls, including arbitrary killings, torture, sexual violence and forced marriages. Women and girls are primarily and increasingly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war. While women and girls are in general more predominantly subject to sexual violence, men and boys have also been victims of sexual violence, especially in contexts of detention. Often gender-based violence also spikes in post-conflict societies, due to the general breakdown of the rule of law, the availability of small arms, the breakdown of social and family structures and the "normalization" of gender-based violence as an additional element of pre-existing discrimination. Trafficking is also heightened during and after conflict owing to the breakdown of political, economic and social structures, high levels of violence and increased militarism.

The lack of delivery or availability of essential services to the population experienced during conflict and situations of battle and instability can have a disproportionate impact on specific groups of the population, including women and girls—again, often constructing on pre-existing situations of discrimination. 

Girls might also face additional obstacles in accessing education. These barriers are due to fear of targeted attacks and threats and to the additional caregiving and household responsibilities that girls are often obliged to assume. Women are also forced to look for alternative sources of livelihood, as family survival comes to depend heavily on them. Access to essential services such as health care, including sexual and reproductive health services can be disrupted, with women and girls being at a greater risk of unplanned pregnancy, maternal mortality and morbidity, severe sexual and reproductive injuries and contracting sexually transmitted infections, including as a result of conflict-related sexual violence.

Internally displaced women can be disproportionately affected by the loss of livelihoods during displacement. Loss of housing and land can affect women disproportionally, due for example to the absence of property titles. Other major human rights concerns include inequitable access to assistance, education and training. Internally displaced women often have no access to adequate reproductive health care services and responses and can experience violence and abuse, sexual and labour exploitation, trafficking in persons, forced recruitment and abduction and can also often be excluded from decision-making processes.

The health impacts of conflict can be direct or indirect. According to a study, men have a higher risk of death during the conflict, whereas women and children constitute a majority of refugees and the displaced. Isolated quantitative studies provide contradictory evidence of the effects of conflict on the life expectancy ratio of men and women. As per the findings of one study, conflict reduces women's life expectancy disproportionately to men's, because women are more affected by the indirect effects of economic change, displacement and sexual violence. A statistical analysis mentioned that conflict does not have a significant impact on gender parity in life expectancy; rather internal conflicts seem to harm males and females equally. It is evident that conflict affects maternal mortality: in 2008, the eight countries with the highest maternal mortality rates were either experiencing or emerging from conflict.

It is widely asserted that conflict alters women's economic role in the household and broader society. While stringent evidence is limited, some recent comparative, cross-country case studies ( like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Kosovo, Tajikistan and Timor-Leste) illustrate that armed conflict can increase women's economic activity, primarily through participation in labour markets. In some cases, this is associated with increases in overall household and community welfare. In general, however, female employment often involves low-paid, low-skilled jobs, self-employment in the informal sector, or unpaid family labour.

The effects of conflict on women's economic activity differ by age and life status. While some data shows how conflict economically empowered widows, probably by necessity, on the other hand, married women continued to serve to traditional notions of women's role, engaging in domestic tasks and subsistence farming. In general, the economic opportunities open to women are shaped mostly by culture and tradition, education, and access to land and resources.

There is some country-specific evidence (Colombia, East Timor and more weakly, Nepal) that supports the argument that greater economic participation of women contributes to women's empowerment within households. Based on various case studies (Sudan, Uganda, Angola, Mali, and Somalia), women in some instances gain decision making power within the family once they become the main breadwinner. In general, however, they find that while the practices of social institutions may change in conflict contexts, it is usually to a limited degree.

Social, economic and political gains that women may have achieved during the conflict tend to disappear in the post-conflict period. Although there is little evidence on the economic status of war widows, existing evidence suggests that these female-headed households are particularly vulnerable and have a higher incidence of poverty when compared to male-headed households. Such vulnerability to poverty can persist across generations. It is thus important to target widows and their families with assistance in order to halt this inter-generational transmission.

Conflict can create opportunities for women to play an increased role in political decision-making. Larger scale wars that contest the political system and/or change the composition of government have produced the best outcomes for women to gain parliamentary representation. A third of the countries that have 30 per cent or more women in parliament experienced recent conflict, fragility or a transition to democracy. Similar to the case of gendered economic impacts, however, women in most (but not all) post-conflict contexts have been unable to formalise and translate political gains made during conflict into post-conflict political representation. Although there are examples of women having taken political roles at community and national levels, the evidence is inconsistent. In many other examples, women have not made inroads into power structures at the community level or at higher political levels.

What is important at the same time is that women and girls should not only be seen as victims of conflict and instability. They have historically had and continue to have a role as soldiers, as part of organized civil society, as human rights defenders, as members of resistance movements and as active agents in peacebuilding and recovery processes. Post-conflict situations and reforms can be viewed as an opportunity for transformation of the societal structures and norms in place before the conflict in order to ensure greater enjoyment of women's human rights. Yet, women's exclusion from conflict prevention efforts, post-conflict transition and reconstruction processes have been matters of concern globally.

Until next time, take care and pray for those who aspire nothing, but peace.

Paati

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