VAWnet News Blog

Trans asylum seekers have recounted assaults, harassment and abuse in immigration facilities in the United States and Britain and refugee camps in Europe, after being held with men who targeted them for their gender identity.

"Transformation doesn’t happen in a linear way, at least not what we can always track. It happens in cycles, convergences, explosions. If we release the framework of failure, we can realize that we are in iterative cycles, and we can keep asking ourselves-how do I learn from this?” — adrienne maree brown

“The reality is our current system isn’t working. We see the vast majority of people perpetrating domestic violence continue down that path with their current victim or another,” says Jessica Glynn, senior director of law and policy for the Kalamazoo YWCA. “So addressing the root cause is compelling.”

The federal Violence Against Women Act requires any state that wants to be eligible for certain federal grants to certify that the state covers the cost of medical forensic exams for people who have been sexually assaulted. And yet for some people who have been raped, the bills keep coming — despite this long-standing federal prohibition and other state laws that provide additional financial protections.

Migrant children held in Yuma, Arizona, report sex assault and retaliation for protests in addition to unsanitary conditions and overcrowding.

Activists say that the ruling, the first of its kind in South Sudan’s eight-year history, could set a precedent for other girls in the country wishing to end marriages entered into at a young age.