Actions taken:
The Swedish Red Cross has, as a peer reviewer, worked to ensure a gender perspective on the Commentaries to the Geneva conventions and their additional protocols in the project of the ICRC to update these. The Swedish Red Cross has continuously since last IC spread awareness on the importance of a gender perspective on IHL through dissemination sessions, seminars, meetings, presentations and information on IHL on our external and internal website. The Swedish Red Cross also actively promote and suggest writings with a gender perspective on IHL in the preparatory work to the 33rd International Conference.
The Swedish Total Defence Council for International Humanitarian Law published an informative publication on IHL in June 2017, written by the Swedish Red Cross’s legal advisors. The publication was launched at a Swedish Red Cross seminar in Almedalen the same month. The Minister for Defence and the Swedish Red Cross Secretary General presented and discussed the publication and its importance.
The publication has thereafter been widely spread by both the Swedish Total Defence Council and the Swedish Red Cross, to among others government agencies and universities. The publication is also continuously spread by the Swedish Red Cross in relation to lectures, seminars and other activities in International Humanitarian Law. The publication is free of charge and can be ordered or downloaded at:
https://www.regeringen.se/artiklar/2017/06/skrift-om-den-internationella-humanitara-ratten/”
The Swedish Red Cross has also initiated and performed a wide range of activities together with the IFRC secretariat. These are shortly summarized here:
- Unseen, unheard: Gender-based violence in disasters – Global study
Leading up to, and as one of the key background material guiding the development of the SGBV Resolution at the International Conference in 2015, SRC co-funded a multi country study on GBV. The research highlights that more should be done to better understand and address GBV in disasters and provides recommendations to humanitarian community and public authorities.
- Effective law and policy on gender equality and protection from sexual and gender-based violence in disasters – Global study
SRC provided financial and technical support to the IFRC for a research initiative that seeks to fill a knowledge gap on effective law and policy for gender in disaster risk management and the prevention of and response to SGBV in disasters. The study follows on from the recommendations of the SRC supported research report on SGBV in 2015 ‘Unseen, Unheard- Gender-based violence in disasters – Global study” and the IFRC/UNDP multi-country study on ‘Effective law and regulation for disaster risk reduction: a multi-country report’3, both of which called for further analysis and development of recommendations regarding the role that law and policy can play in addressing gender inequality in disasters.
A series of training packages on gender, diversity, protection and SGBV has been developed and rolled out to accompanying the guideline “Minimum standards for protection, gender and inclusion in emergencies” for IFRC and National Societies staff. SRC has contributed financially, but also been actively involved in the wide consultation process of developing SGBV tools and training modules.
