Proper GBV etiquette: Do not judge

One in three women worldwide has experienced physical and/or sexual violence at least once, leading me to ask, not if, but when someone confides about a sexual assault, do we all understand best practice in how to respond?

- Catherine Poulton

Every day, Congolese refugees, mostly women and children, arrive at the Musenyi site. The site has a capacity of 10,000 people, but by the end of April it was hosting more than 15,000 refugees.

(Photo: Dorine Niyunigeko/MSF)

My work is primarily in preventing and responding to violence that women and girls face in emergency settings, including sexual violence, but many lessons are universal. When training refugee camp managers, police and humanitarian responders, I refer to the ‘GBV Pocket Guide’.

Whether you're a specialist or not, it tells you the steps you should follow with one main principle at the heart of all actions: Do no harm. This means: Don’t judge, don’t doubt, don’t give advice. Instead, know your local support services, including local women’s associations, health centres and others. This is about preparation. Everyone should download the GBV Pocket Guide because at some point, we will all need it.

In humanitarian contexts, 70 per cent of women experience gender-based violence (GBV) compared with the 35 per cent worldwide. This horrifying reality is why my job exists. I was recently deployed to Burundi to train response teams on how to prevent and deal with sexual violence, an initiative funded by 2gether 4 SRHR.