Social Groups Gain Insight into Relationship between Migration and Gender Based Violence

The posters will help to raise public awareness of the harmful social norms and power inequalities that are at the root of gender-based violence in migration contexts.  The campaign will call for action to reduce these inequalities and bring an end to gender-based violence.

During the workshop, participants gained knowledge on the topic of migration and considered how true integration can take place. They had to think and talk with each other from their own experiences and organizations’ perspectives about violence in general, and particularly about violence that vulnerable migrants experience. Migrant integration was considered along the psychological, economic, political, social, linguistic, and navigational dimensions. What emerged clearly from the workshop is that coherent government policy is needed that will define the rights of migrants in all these dimensions and provide protection against violence and access to justice.

Astrid Runs, project officer Joint-Programme SDG of UNFPA, acknowledged that in Suriname international and internal migrations play a big role. “Through our UNFPA joint programs, i.e. the Minimal Initial Service Package (MISP), we also pay attention to internal migration in Suriname, due to climate crisis and/or humanitarian disaster. Within the MISP’s workshop district teams and health care providers get the necessary knowledge and skill set regarding sexual and reproductive health rights and gender-based violence to mitigate harmful practices that migrants can face. The IOM workshop has been informative and interactive for the participants, and it gives us the opportunity to deepen the cooperation with IOM Suriname on a structural level.”

Participants in the workshop recognized that the dimensions and their impacts can be complex.  For instance, linguistic integration of migrants is challenging.  Because language barriers exist, direct communication between locals and migrants can be difficult.  The linguistic and navigational dimensions are also related, as it is also not easy for migrants to navigate official documents and processes in Suriname because of the language barriers. Representative of the Haitian consulate, Jean-Claude Lappe attended the workshop.   He noted that it is important to have a special collaboration with the IOM and other organizations to support integration of the new generation of Haitians that are coming to Suriname.

The awareness workshops on Gender Based Violence and Migrant Integration were organized by Dance Against Violence (DAV) Foundation, in collaboration with International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Suriname and supported by the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund).