A new website on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) has been launched. The site includes information and tools on PSEA, the Executive Committees on Humanitarian Affairs and Peace and Security (ECHA/ECPS) Task Force, achievements, documents, videos and links. In addition, the site provides tailored information and tools to specific target groups such as First time here visitors, Staff Members, Focal Points and Senior Managers.

Visit the site here.

In November 2009, the Australian anti-poverty agency, ActionAid released the field manual called “Safety with Dignity”. 

The manual provides guidance regarding how to integrate community-based protection across humanitarian programs. It further aims to contribute to international efforts to improve the protection of individuals and communities at risk in disasters, conflicts, displacement and protracted crisis contexts.

For the manual, please click here.

Action Aid is a rights based anti-poverty agency addressing the root causes of poverty and injustice – not just the effects. The fundamental assumption is that all – rich or poor - are entitled to the same basic human rights. ActionAid works to end poverty and injustice alongside poor, excluded and vulnerable people. The agency is active in over 40 countries across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe.

For further information on Action Aid, see here.

BBC News reports that Islamic scholars have signed a ban against Female Genital Mutilation in Mauritania.

According to estimates, more than 70 percent of Mauritanian girls undergo the partial or total removal of their external genitalia for non-medical reasons.

It is believed that this move will contribute to a significant reduction of female genital mutilation. Read the full story here.

The folks over at Sociological Images blog recently posted this comparison between the official international symbol for persons with disabilities (above) and one the author spotted at a local T.J. Maxx in California (below).  We talk about engaging with refugees as active partners vs. passive beneficiaries.  This imagery  might give us insight into how unexpected subtle changes can shift our thinking.  Doesn’t the second image convey so much more motion and strength?  Someone’s been thinking.   Q.  How can we shift our representation of the refugees we serve in a similar way?

This today from Jeff Crisp, Head of UNHCR Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit:

UNHCR has issued a new policy on refugee protection and solutions in urban areas which underlines the importance of Age, Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming (AGDM) in the organization’s work in cities around the world. According to the new policy, “this approach recognizes that the different groups to be found within any refugee population have varying interests, needs, capacities and vulnerabilities, and seeks to ensure that these are taken into full account in the design of UNHCR programmes. The Office will consequently strive to map and respond to the specific situation of groups such as women, children, older persons, unaccompanied and separated minors, as well as ethnic minorities.”

The policy goers on to state that “in urban settings, the AGDM approach may have some specific characteristics and implications. For example, while young refugee men are not normally considered to be particularly vulnerable, those who work illegally and in the informal sector of cities and towns may be at particular risk of detention, deportation, exploitative and hazardous employment. Refugee women and girls may also be threatened if steps are not taken to address the diminished role and self-esteem of men when they lose their role as family breadwinner.”

Click here to view the full paper titled “UNHCR Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas”.

Photo: UNHCR Zalmai

For your consideration, here are three recently published UNHCR research papers:

Click here for: Refugee resettlement, family separation and Australia’s humanitarian programme.  Brooke McDonald-Wilmsen and Sandra M. Gifford.  November 2009

Click here for:  The coping processes of adult refugees resettled in New Zealand.  Dr. Maïté Pahud, Assoc Prof Ray Kirk, Dr. Jeffrey D Gage, Prof Andrew R Hornblow.  November 2009

And click here for:  Fleeing for love: asylum-seekers and sexual orientation in Scandinavia. Petter Hojem.  December 2990

Photo:  UNHCR/H. Caux

This from Sociological Images website – a Clorox commercial tracks the history of laundry.  At first I thought there were at least a FEW men helping – but nope, they just walk through frame while women are anchored in the room, fussing and folding.  Last month we posted a Ted.com Talk about the danger of the single story.  This is a dangerous single story that we tell about men and women even as the ad tries to tell us that things have changed.  As someone who makes television programs and ads, I well understand (and we all understand, actually) that producers and executives make choices about their imagery and whomever made these ads are choosing to be stuck in one narrative. How boring and destructive at the same time.

Grrr.  Check out this post at SI for similar imagery in other adds.

This is a short  version of an upcoming full length documentary by Apache filmmaker Raquel Chapa.  The film tells the story of Indigenous survivors of sexual assault in the U.S. and highlights the systematic failure of law enforcement to provide protection for Native women or to prosecute their assailants.

The teen-focused website thatsnotcool.com provides much-needed awareness and action around abuse that starts through social networking.  Is someone being inappropriate?  Maybe crossing the line of privacy?  Clever callout cards send a snarky message to the offender.  Videos and exercises define abuse and point to resources for help.  Great idea.

Jessica Buchanan and Medallio Green created The Glass Breaking Project to break the cycles of and silence about violence within relationships.  You write a message about what you want to “break” on a piece of glass, climb to the top of a ladder and smash the glass on the ground below.  It’s so visceral and satisfying!

I’m excited about this project because it is SUCH a great idea and because I witnessed these two dynamic young women hatch the concept in a Shenandoah University Women’s Studies class in Winchester, Virginia two years ago.   This is great activity for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence which is ongoing from November 25 – December 10.

Jessica and Medallio are graduating and creating a non-profit company to take the show on the road.  Click here to contact these visionary young women.

Medallio Green and Jessica Buchanan - Founders of The Glass Breaking Project

Dr. Amy Sarch, Director of Shenandoah University Women's Studies Program