Justice Outcomes and SGBV Cases in Karen Refugee Camps 2011-13.

We launched Salt in the Wound on the 25th of November 2013, which is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the report is about SGBV cases in the refugee camps.

The report documents the results of research into the justice outcomes of 289 cases of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) in the seven Karen-majority refugee camps located along the Thai-Burma border. The results of our research are staggering, and provide ample evidence for the need for change.

In the vast majority (80%) of all the SGBV cases in six of the seven camps, women received inadequate justice responses. Even in cases of sexual violence, including rape, we found that there were very weak responses by the judicial systems. The inadequate justice outcomes include perpetrators just signing an agreement to say that they won’t do it again (usually with no follow up to ensure that they don’t), or paying a small fine to the authorities (usually with zero compensation for the victim) or almost no action at all by authorities. This is not good enough for crimes of violence.