By taking the recognition of persons as rights-holders in the framework of international human rights into account, this study directs its attention to women in protracted refugee situations, restricted to stay in camps also when their human rights are at risk due to various forms of violence. The question in focus is the following: To what extent may there be a risk that women in a refugee camp context, distinguished by a protracted refugee situation, do not become visible as rights-holders and entrusted to act with regard to international human rights and the problem of violence against women, especially domestic violence? The research process has taken the form of a continuous dialogue with the material for the study, a dialogue directing attention to material from an established international human rights system on one hand and material dealing with a local refugee camp context on the other. The study finds its entry-point primarily in the context of the international human rights treaty the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), including the work of the CEDAW Committee as a treaty body, and also the international mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences. Due to the presence of a variety of justice mechanisms in the camps, certain aspects of a local customary law tradition are also addressed. The existence of an unlocked legal door for women to take actions in family law matters, or in cases of gender-based violence is something not to take for granted. The hindrances could lie deep in the legal system practiced. It could be an issue of not being entrusted by the structure of the system to act in person, as woman, with a legal capacity and by own right before the law. The study underlines the importance of sharpened awareness and analysis of the presence of a complex legal context and a variety of customary law traditions in the camps. It appears from the study that for women in a refugee camp to be able to act as rights-holders and claim human rights as laid down in human rights conventions, the issue of visibility is not only a matter of training in presenting facts on the ground in front of local authorities. To be visible in addressing the problem of gender-based violence and gaps in protection of human rights in a refugee camp context is first and foremost an issue for women to be recognized the right to act in legal matters. It is an issue of having the freedom of expression and to be recognized the social and legal status to act in their own capacity in front of the local legal structures, including the local customary law context, and to address international human rights monitoring mechanisms, such as the CEDAW Committee or the Special Rapporteur.

The dissertation analyzes obstacles and potential in democracies, specifically Canada, Sweden, and United States, to effectively address empirically documented harms of pornography. Legislative and judicial challenges under different democratic and legal frameworks are compared. Adopting a problem-driven theoretical approach, the reality of pornography’s harms is analyzed. Evidence shows its production exploits existing inequalities among persons typically drawn from other forms of prostitution who suffer multiple disadvantages, such as extreme poverty, childhood sexual abuse, and race and gender discrimination, making survival alternatives remote. Consumption is also divided by sex. A majority of young adult men consumes pornography frequently; women rarely do, usually not unless initiated by others. After consumption, studies show many normal men become substantially more sexually aggressive and increasingly trivialize and support violence against women. Vulnerable populations—including battered, raped, or prostituted women—are most harmed as a result. The impact of attempts to address pornography’s harms on democratic rights and freedoms, specifically gender equality and speech, is explored through the case studies. Democracies are found to provide more favorable conditions for legal challenges to pornography’s harms when recognizing substantive (not formal) equality in law, and when promoting representation of perspectives and interests of groups particularly injured by pornography. State-implemented approaches such as criminal obscenity laws are found less effective. More victim-centered and survivor-initiated civil rights approaches would be more responsive and remedial—a finding with implications for other politico-legal problems, such as global warming, that disproportionately affect disadvantaged populations traditionally largely excluded from decision-making.

Power imbalances and gender-based violence (GBV) have increasingly been cited as important determinants putting women at risk of HIV infections. Studies have shown that globally one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. The study explored working women’s perceptions of power, gender-based violence and HIV-infection risks. A qualitative, explorative study was conducted among female employees in an airline business in Namibia. Five women participated in in-depth, face-to-face interviews. The findings show that all of the participants experienced power imbalances and GBV in their intimate relationships. All of the women reported emotional or psychological abuse, whilst the majority were subjected to economic abuse, followed by physical abuse, and two alleged having been sexually abused. The study concludes with specific recommendations for the development and successful implementation of workplace policy and programmes to protect and promote women’s rights. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

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Sweden's gender equality work has historically been a success in many ways, but honour-based violence and oppression is not debated or identified as a Swedish social problem. What is the effect of differentiating between different social problems that fall into the same category? The present thesis aims to deepen the understanding of how men's violence against women is understood at a time when Sweden is considered to be in the forefront of gender equality policy issues. The present thesis therefore examines how honour-based violence and oppression is defined in Sweden, and how Swedish authorities work to prevent and combat the violence. By examining the image of victims of honour-based violence, on which the definition and the work are based, power dynamics within the discourse are also made visible. By using critical discourse analysis as a method and by using theoretical concepts, two government reports on honour-based violence and oppression in Sweden, and a handbook aimed at professionals in the school system are analyzed. The present thesis shows that the Swedish authorities' definition makes a distinction between honour-based violence and oppression, and men's violence against women. It is mainly explained as a problem based on culture, unlike men's violence against women, which is described as a social problem. This is made visible by Swedish authorities through a focus on foreigners in the work of preventing and combating honour-based violence. The definition and the work analyzed in the present thesis contribute to making it more difficult for victims of honour-based violence to identify themselves as "Swedish". Throughout the texts there is a stereotypical image of both victims and perpetrators of violence as being foreigners: people with dark colored hair and dark colored eyes. It is important to analyze and problematize how Swedish authorities choose to express themselves but also how they choose not to. In this way, we can critically examine how authorities contribute to the construction of a social reality and also reproduce unequal power dynamics in society.

Aim: The aim of this study was to broaden the understanding of the role of communitygroups in the prevention of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Bolivia. Therefore, this work assessed the connection between community group membership and the justification ofphysical IPV among women in Bolivia. IPV justification was chosen as an outcome, as it is strongly correlated to IPV experience. Methods: Data from a quantitative survey by the World Values Survey involving 988 womenin Bolivia was used for the analysis. To assess possible confounders, bivariate analysis was conducted. Logistic regression analysis between women’s community group membership andtheir justification of physical IPV has been performed. Results: The results indicate that 19.6% of women in Bolivia partly or always justify IPV.There has not been a significant association between community group membership and IPVjustification. The factors that were significantly associated to IPV justification in the final model were age and educational level of the women. Women aged 50 + had lower odds ofjustifying physical IPV than women aged 18-29 (OR 0.59, 95% CI: 0.35-0.97, p= <0.05). Similarly, women in the highest educational group had lower odds of justifying IPVcompared to women in the lowest educational group (OR 0.63, 95% CI: 0.41-0.98, p= <0.05). Conclusion: The association between community group membership and IPV justification inthis study was insignificant. This could be due to limitations in the study design. Futureresearch in the area should conduct studies with focus on different types of community groups singularly.

Les violences sexuelles ont de fortes répercussions sur la santé mentale des victimes. Aussi bien en temps de paix qu’en temps de guerre, les femmes payent un lourd tribut à la suite de ces violences. L’accès au traitement troubles anxiodépressifs liés à ces actes de violence est souvent limité dans les pays à faible revenu à cause de plusieurs facteurs. Le présent mémoire se propose de réfléchir sur les possibilités de traitement des troubles mentaux liés aux violences sexuelles chez les femmes en contexte de soins de santé primaires. Objectifs Cette étude a pour objectifs d’identifier les outils pour le dépistage et la prise en charge des troubles anxiodépressifs chez les femmes victimes de violences sexuelles au Congo Kinshasa et de proposer un modèle de psychothérapie à distance pour la prise en charge de ces victimes de violences sexuelles. Résultats Il existe des plateformes digitales de traitement des troubles anxiodépressifs utilisant la thérapie cognitivocomportementale ayant fait leurs preuves. Nous avons proposé un modèle de psychothérapie à distance s’intégrant dans le système de santé congolais en contexte de soins de santé primaires. Conclusions Malgré les obstacles à l’implantation des technologies digitales en Afrique, l’usage des plateformes à distance de thérapie web est une option envisageable dans la prise en charge des troubles anxiodépressifs chez les femmes victimes de violence sexuelle en RDC. L’intégration des plateformes de thérapie à distance dans les soins de santé primaires pourrait contribuer à diminuer efficacement la prévalence des troubles anxiodépressifs consécutifs aux violences sexuelles. Mots-clés : violences sexuelles, troubles anxiodépressifs, thérapies à distance, soins de santé primaires. / Sexual violence has a strong impact on the mental health of victims. In both peacetime and wartime, women pay a heavy price as a result of such violence. Access to treatment for mental disorders related to the consequences of such acts is often limited in low-income countries due to several factors. This paper aims to reflect on the possibilities of treating mental disorders linked to sexual violence in women in the context of primary health care. Objective Identify tools for the screening and management of anxiety-depressive disorders among women victims of sexual violence in Congo Kinshasa and propose a remote psychotherapy model for the care of these victims of sexual violence. The presentation of two articles, one of which is a narrative review providing an inventory of digital technologies for the treatment of anxiety-depressive disorders in Africa and the other a protocol on the acceptability of treatments for anxio-depressive disorders by digital technologies in the context of care primary health care was carried out. Results We have demonstrated the existence of digital platforms for the treatment of anxiety-depressive disorders using cognitive-behavioral therapy in the West. We have proposed a remote psychotherapy model that fits into the Congolese health system in the context of primary health care. Conclusions Despite the obstacles to a good establishment as well as the problems related to mental health in Africa, the use of remote web therapy platforms appears beneficial in the management of anxiety-depressive disorders. The integration of these platforms into primary health care could effectively help reduce the prevalence of anxiety-depressive disorders resulting from sexual violence. Keywords: Internet Based Intervention, Online, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress, depression, third countries, gender-based violence.

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Mexico is currently one the most dangerous countries in the world to practice journalism, with one of the highest death rates in the world. Violence against Mexican journalists has received significant attention from researchers, most recently when it comes to digital threats. Research suggests that online harassment against journalists is not only related to the profession or topic covered, but also individual characteristics like gender, race and sexuality. Digital threats affect everyone, but the threats women are faced with are disproportionate. While digital technologies are useful in developing reporting practices, it has also been shown as detrimental. Through a semi-structured WhatsApp interview with a Mexican women journalists and coordinator in an International Journalist Network, this study attempts to identify the perceptions of online threats against women journalists and the use of Networks as a coping strategy. Through the use of digital testimonies, this study attempts to further amplify Mexican women journalists’ voices and experiences when it comes to using Networks as a coping strategy to confront online violence.  The importance here is to understand the Mexican context and the dimensions to digital violence, the possibilities of resilience and the coping strategies practiced by Mexican women journalists. Through analysing perceptions of the threat and their experiences with Networks, this study attemps to identify the strengths and possibilities of Networks as a coping strategy, when it comes to digital threats, but also its barriers and limitations. This study is important to the field of Communication of Development and Social Change as it underscores the importance of listening, understanding local contexts, perceptions and resilience. This is crucial when undertaking intitaves on a larger scale for social change.

This dissertation intervenes in debates in Media Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Canadian Immigration Studies, and Critical Race Studies to explore how shifting news media and political representations of Muslim families reflect the complexities of what it means to be Canadian beyond holding citizenship. In the post-9/11 era, the Muslim family has re-emerged in Canadian English-language news media and Canadian political debates as a site of inherent violence. Drawing on orientalist narratives of the Muslim family, news media and political conversations tend to frame these homes as being headed by patriarchal fathers and oppressed mothers, and children seeking to break from families and traditions, yet always holding the potential to become violent themselves. Even though Canada identifies as a multicultural nation, Muslim families are often presented in media as undeserving of the rights of Canadian citizenship, and even deserving of state violence. While news media play a key role in reproducing orientalist framings of Muslim families, news media can also take the government to task when it comes to the violation of immigrant and racialized Canadians’ rights as citizens. Some news media coverage counter orientalist narratives by producing “positive” representations of Muslim families, however, these “positive” representations frequently frame Muslims who are worthy of the rights of citizenship as adhering to heteronormative family dynamics, productive citizenship, and normative Western gender roles and kinship formations. These “positive” portrayals produce varying representations of Muslim families, but such framings can also labour in the way of reifying Canada’s multicultural ideals and Canada’s idea of itself as “civilized.” Drawing on the news media coverage of the family of Maher Arar, the Khadrs, and the Shafias, I argue that such representations still produce the norms of the settler-colonial Canadian nation, where some racialized bodies, in this case Muslim families, can be granted the rights of Canadian citizenship if they are able to proximate normative Canadian kinship formations. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In the wake of 9/11, many Canadian English-language news media have framed Muslim men as violent and Muslim women as oppressed. This dissertation analyzes the shifting Canadian news media portrayals of the Muslim family. Muslim homes in Canada are often portrayed as spaces for the perpetuation of violence that threatens the Canadian nation. Simultaneously, news media also portray some Muslim homes as spaces of purportedly “good” Canadian citizens, if these Muslim families are able to conform to Canadian “values.” I examine how Canadian news media mobilize heteronormativity, middle-class status, productive citizenship, among others, to portray some Muslims as ascribing to Canadian values, and therefore worthy of the rights of citizenship. Drawing on the news media coverage of the cases of Maher Arar and Monia Mazigh, Ahmed and Omar Khadr and Maha Elsamnah, and Mohammed Shafia, Rona Mohammed, and Tooba Yahya, I analyze how Muslims who are viewed as not assimilating to Western ideals of family are deemed as undeserving of the rights of citizenship, and, in addition, may even deserve violence.