Conflicts are becoming increasingly prolonged and complex, leading to larger populations of displaced people with specific needs. Conflicts are now exacerbated by climate change and periodic emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. People who have fled conflict—whether they’ve become rural-to-urban migrants, or whether they’ve become refugees in far-away locales—have unique and multi-faceted needs. This is particularly the case for refugees with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).
People with diverse SOGIESC are often targeted for violence before and during conflict. In some cases, these people and communities are targeted by armed groups, while in others they are targeted by their families, friends or governments. Often people with diverse SOGIESC in conflict zones experience multiple forms of violence and discrimination from multiple sources. Conflict is a diverse SOGIESC issues because people with diverse SOGIESC face specific challenges in conflict, when fleeing from conflict, and when they are attempting to re-build their lives following conflict, be it at home, as immigrants, or in a refugee setting.
The resources available in the Conflict category cover an array of topics including: research into the refugees with diverse SOGIESC experiences of sexual violence; challenges in accessing humanitarian services for people with diverse SOGIESC who have fled conflict; secondary research analysis of challenges for people with diverse SOGIESC in fragile and conflict affected environments; and considerations for humanitarian providers and experts in working with people with diverse SOGIESC who have survived conflict.
These resources have been compiled to enable humanitarian practitioners to better include people with diverse SOGIESC in conflict response, and to increase awareness of the ways in which diverse SOGIESC impact a person’s experience of conflict.
