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May 8, 2006
Ethiopian refugee
Safe abortion care must be available to refugees who are survivors of sexual assault.
Photo courtesy of Pep Bonet, Panos Pictures.

As the Sudanese government and rebel groups in the Darfur region forge a shaky peace agreement, women continue to feel the effects of the conflict — sexual assault, pregnancies resulting from rape and the double indignity of not being able to access safe abortion or other reproductive-health services.  

Since 2003, government-supported Arab militias called the Janjaweed have waged a scorched-earth campaign against the people of Darfur. More than 2 million people have been uprooted (many fleeing to neighboring Chad), and another 250,000 deaths are directly attributed to the violence. And as pawns of war, the women of Darfur have been systematically raped — by Janjaweed horsemen pillaging their villages or while looking for sanctuary. Even once they reach the “safety” of refugee camps, they’ve been assaulted by guards or when they search for water and firewood.

Though rape has been widely used as an instrument of war in Sudan, Ipas Senior Research Associate Tamara Fetters asserts in a Forced Migration Review editorial that humanitarian agencies are not doing enough to address the needs of women who survive these attacks. For the most part, agencies do not heed or are ignorant of host countries’ laws regarding abortion as well as global guidelines for the care of sexual-violence victims.

In the latest issue of the Forced Migration Review, Fetters cites 2005 Human Rights Watch research that said only one of six agencies providing health services to the Darfur camps in Chad offers emergency contraception (a key factor in helping sexual-assault survivors prevent resulting pregnancies) or comprehensive treatment of sexually transmitted infections.

Despite the large number of women who have been raped and the high mortality rate from unsafe abortion, the issue of safe abortion services is a non-starter in these settings — though abortion is legally permitted in Chad and Sudan.

Fetters writes: “Abortion is legal in Chad if it is a question of saving a woman’s life and protecting her health. Sudanese law allows abortion to save the mother’s life, or when the pregnancy is the result of a rape which has occurred not more than 90 days before the pregnant woman expresses her wish to have the abortion, or when the child has died in the mother’s womb. The legal provisions in both countries are unambiguous: A Sudanese woman’s right to life and health is violated if she is forced to carry to term an unwanted pregnancy resulting from rape.”

Why are many refugee-health providers ignoring safe abortion care where it’s most needed? U.S. government policies limiting discussion or actual provision of abortion services may be a factor in humanitarian agencies’ apparent decision to ignore this segment of reproductive health.

Read the full text of the article at the Forced Migration Review online.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258