Leaving no one behind: Strengthening gender-based violence services for LGBTIQ+ survivors

UNITED NATIONS, Nairobi/HARARE, Zimbabwe - "Every human being deserves to be heard [in order] to start healing when they face any form of violence," said Thulisiwe*, who works with a mobile gender-based violence response service in Zimbabwe.

As a service provider, Thulilsiwe gives special attention to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer ( LGBTIQ+) community. "There is a real fear among the LGBTIQ+ community of being identified and then victimized, especially those living in rural areas with deeply entrenched and rigid intolerance," she explained.

The mobile centre where Thulisiwe works is supported by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, which is the UN's sexual and reproductive health agency. It is one of eight UNFPA centres in the country aiming to prevent and address gender-based violence.

These kinds of programmes most often provide support to women and girls - yet LGBTIQ+ people also face sexual and gender-based violence at extremely high rates. Stigma, undertrained staff and outdated protocols can prevent survivors from this community from even trying to seek help, and can worsen their experience when they do report violence.

"This affects if, when and how they access essential support services," said Thulisiwe. "I have seen this struggle manifest through late reporting, limited disclosure and clear discomfort during the consultation process."

Rights-based, survivor-centred care

In many countries, same-sex relations are criminalized, non-binary gender identities aren't recognized, and anti-discrimination measures have not yet been implemented. Violence against LGBTIQ+ people may even be tolerated or enabled - from so-called "corrective rape" to involuntary psychiatric treatment. And as people's lives move increasingly online, LGBTIQ+ people also face specific risks from technology-facilitated gender-based violence, such as forced outing.

Through its Women at the Centre programme, UNFPA is improving the quality of case management services for all survivors of gender-based violence. Accredited training and continuous professional development are helping case managers meet international standards. Essential to this mission is improving the safety and treatment of survivors from marginalized communities.

Currently implemented in four countries, Women at the Centre equips case workers with skills such as respectful communication, informed consent, confidentiality requirements, risk assessment and psychological first aid. To ensure dignity for people in all their diversities, training materials encourage service providers to respect survivors' identities, preferences and autonomy.

To date, more than 400 case workers have been trained in these approaches, and support has been provided to more than 10,000 people at risk of, or experiencing, violence. It is making a real difference in the care received by LGBTIQ+ survivors, Thulisiwe said.

"I learned the importance of a survivor-centred, human rights-based approach when offering services," she said. "I'm glad that I can be the change required in my community."

The path to progress

Women at the Centre is now developing a new curriculum designed hand-in-hand with those who face the biggest barriers to services. As part of this process, the programme recently completed global consultations with LGBTIQ+ communities and others.

"We wanted to act on the values at the core of the Women at the Centre programme, by identifying and compensating marginalized individuals with gender-based violence programme experience who could apply their lived expertise to the design and content of the curriculum," explained Erin Gerber, the UNFPA specialist leading the Women at the Centre programme.

As well as raising specific concerns, members of LGBTIQ+ communities are proposing solutions. For example, they noted the risk that disclosing details about their identity could lead to arrest or other legal consequences, leading to recommendations on safe documentation practices as well as remote and anonymous service provision.

They also highlighted diversities within their community: the needs of transgender persons are often distinct from those of intersex persons, for example, and the needs of LGBTIQ+ people with disabilities are often different from those of LGBTIQ+ indigenous people. In response, the curriculum contains options to co-design services with local LGBTIQ+ partners.

"Co-constructing the curriculum meant no longer looking at these communities as objects of research or as recipients of rescue, but recognizing them as people, and therefore as producers of knowledge," explained María de las Nieves Puglia, the curriculum consultant who organized many of the consultations.

Engagement was not limited to receiving inputs, Ms. Puglia said. The communities also actively reviewed and revised the curriculum, which is now in the final stages of development.

*Name changed for privacy and protection