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Guidelines for Gender Sensitive Disaster Management

Reproduction of this publication for educational or other

non-commercial purposes is authorised provided the source is fully

acknowledged.

Writer: Shyamala Gomez

Editor: Cholpon Akmatova

Cover design and layout: Naw Eh Mwee

This publication is supported by Mamacash and Cordaid

Photos by SRED, SP, Suraiya Kamaruzzaman, Judy A. Pasimio, Roots

for Equity

GUIDELINES FOR GENDER SENSITIVE

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Practical Steps to Ensure Women’s Needs are Met And

Women’s Human Rights are Respected and Protected

Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)

CONTENTS

FOREWORD 1

INTRODUCTION 4

IMMEDIATE RESPONSES DURING DISASTER RELIEF 5

PHASE

Identify Specific Needs of Women 6

Ensure that Emergency Relief Supplies Include Women’s 7

Specific Requirements

Ensure Women’s Access to Sufficient and Adequate Food 8

Food distribution should be equitable, transparent and respect 10

human dignity

Aid distribution for women should be handled by women 11

Ensure that Women’s Menstrual Needs Are Met 12

Ensure that All Disaster Affected People Have Access to 13

Adequate Shelters

Ensure Women’s Access to Adequate Toilet and Bathing Facilities17

Ensure Women’s Access to Free Health Care Services 21

Ensure Security and Safety of Women and Children 25

Protect Women from Violence and Abuse 27

Ensure Women’s Access to Psycho-Social Counselling 31

MID-TERM RESPONSES DURING THE RECOVERY PHASE 33

Ensure Women’s Participation in Management of Camps and 35

Temporary Shelters

Ensure Women’s Equal Access to Compensation Payments and 36

Rehabilitation Measures

Eliminate Head of Household Concept 39

Ensure Women’s Access to Information on Relief and 41

Rehabilitation Measures

Ensure Children’s Access to Education 43

LONG TERM RESPONSES DURING RECONSTRUCTION 45

PHASE

Ensure Women’s Participation in Decision Making Processes for 46

Rehabilitation and Reconstruction

Ensure that Reconstruction of Houses Meets Women’s and 49

Family Needs

Ensure Women’s Equal Ownership Rights to Land, House and 52

Property

Ensure Women’s Equal Access to Livelihood Opportunities 57

Raising Women’s Awareness of their Human Rights 61

Mobilise and Empower Women to Advocate for their Human 62

Rights

Protect Vulnerable and Marginalised Groups 64

Protect Migrant Workers 65

Reach out to Widows and Women Headed Households, Disabled 67

and Elderly

Reach out to Low Caste People 70

Ensure Stateless People’s Access to Relief Support 71

Protect Women – Victims of Disasters and Armed Conflict 72

Situations

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GENDER SENSITIVE 75

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

References 76

These Guidelines are the result of the documentation project “Survey of

Women’s Human Rights Violations in the Aftermath of the Tsunami in

India, Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka and the October 8, 2005

Earthquake in Pakistan” coordinated by Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law

and Development (APWLD), a women’s human rights network of over 140

members in 23 countries of Asia Pacific. This project developed in response

to the calls for support from our members involved in relief operations in

the aftermath of the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and their

reports raising women’s human rights concerns in Aceh province in

Indonesia, Tamil Nadu in India, Sri Lanka and the Andaman coast of

Thailand. When Azra Talat Sayeed, our member from Pakistan, reported

about the impact of the earthquake on women, especially women headed

households completely left out of relief assistance, the survey was

expanded to document women’s human rights violations in Northern

Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

“Women and men experience the same hardships,” replied Kofi Anan to a

question on how the UN was addressing women’s specific needs in the tsu-

nami aftermath, at the press-conference during his visit to Jakarta in

January 2005. There are a lot of people around the world, including aid

workers, who believe that disasters, such as the tsunami, affect everyone

equally and there is no need to focus on vulnerable groups, such as women,

children, elderly, marginalised groups such as Dalits in India, migrants,

religious and ethnic minorities and others.

Although gender disaggregated official statistics were not available in

some of the affected countries, the Survey confirms the earlier

observations that in Aceh, India and Sri Lanka more women died in the

tsunami then men, almost 80% of the dead were women. The tsunami not

only killed more women, it produced some very gender-specific after shocks,

ranging from women giving birth in unsafe conditions to new forms of

violence against women: forced recanalisation of women and “tsunami”

marriages. In Thailand, women were discriminated even in death: the

government assistance for funerals provided twice as much money for a

man’s death than for a woman’s because men were regarded as heads of

households and breadwinners. In Aceh, Indonesia, ulamas’, Islamic

religious leaders, interpretation of women’s disproportionately high death

FOREWORD

rates was that the tsunami was the God’s curse on women for their immoral

behaviour. As a result, the enforcement of Shariah Laws in post-tsunami

Aceh became stricter with Shariah police beating women in the streets

for not wearing headscarves. Similarly, in Pakistan women were blamed

for invoking the earthquake as the God’s curse for their sins.

In 2000, at the special session of the UN General Assembly, “Gender

equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, the

Assembly highlighted the inefficiencies and inadequacies of existing

approaches and intervention methods in responding to natural disasters

and the need for gender perspectives to be incorporated whenever

disaster prevention, mitigation and recovery strategies are being

developed and implemented. The Commission on Status of Women further

recognised in 2002 that “gender is a highly significant factor, both in the

construction of social vulnerability to risk and in people’s organised

responses to hazards and disasters. Gender inequalities with respect to

enjoyment of human rights, political and economic status, land ownership,

housing conditions, education, health, in particular reproductive and sexual

health, and exposure to violence, make women more vulnerable before, during

and after disasters.”

However, five years after the concerns about the lack of a gendered

response to natural disasters have been expressed gender blind disaster

management recurred in the context of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and

the Earthquake in Paksitan. The Survey findings confirm that women are

more vulnerable during disasters as women, marginalised and disempowered

under normal circumstances, are more at risk because of their lower

socio-economic status, barriers to choice and lack of access to resources.

Gender neutral disaster management results in discrimination and

marginalisation of women because relief efforts rely on existing structures

of resource distribution that reflect the patriarchal structure of society.

Gender neutral relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts based on

the assumption that men’s and women’s needs are similar result in:

! Women giving birth in unsafe conditions

! Malnourished infants because their malnourished mothers cannot

breastfeed them

! Sexual abuse of women because there are no protection measures

and no separate toilets and bathrooms in camps and temporary

shelters

! Widows and women headed households unable to restore their

livelihoods because employment generation assistance focus on

areas which predominantly employ men

! Widows and women headed households unable to access food and

other aid supplies because of restriction of their movements (e.g.

purdah in Pakistan)

There is an urgent need to move from gender blindness to gender sensitivity

in helping the victims of natural disasters. Given that disasters such as

earthquakes, floods, droughts, hurricanes and landslides will always occur,

it is imperative to ensure that a gender perspective is included in all disaster

management programmes so that the relief efforts are able to properly

address women’s needs and prevent violations of women’s human rights.

We hope these Guidelines will be translated into various languages and

used by government, aid and relief agencies, international and local NGOs

in assisting disaster affected people around the world.

On behalf of APWLD, I would like to thank our members who conducted

the Survey, on which these Guidelines are based, for their hard work and

express my admiration for their commitment to the cause of protection

and promotion of women’s human rights: Fatima Burnad and her team at

Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Movement for their incessant fight for Dalit

women’s rights and against caste discrimination in India. TNDWM saved

many Dalits from starvation when relief food was denied to them; Titi

Soentoro and the team of Solidaritas Perempuan for their resilience and

dedication. Titi had to defer her term as Regional Coordinator of APWLD

Secretariat in Thailand because her team in Aceh needed her help to provide

relief support to the Acehnese survivors. Two members in her Aceh team

died in the tsunami and many lost family members. Ravadee

Prasertcharoensuk and Duangkamol Sirisook of Sustainable Development

Foundation, Thailand; Sunila Abeysekera of INFORM, Sumika Perera of

CATAW and Sarala Emmanuel of Suriya Women’s Development Centre, Sri

Lanka; and Azra Talat Sayeed and the research team of Roots for Equity,

Pakistan, for their hard work in conducting the Survey and special thanks

to Shyamala Gomez, the writer of the Guidelines, and Lin Chew, an adviser

of Global Fund for Women and Mamacash without whose “push” this project

would not have gone ahead.

Cholpon Akmatova

Project Coordinator

APWLD (Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development)

November 2006

These guidelines have been formulated to assist governments, the non state

sector and civil society in dealing with women who have been affected by

disaster. They are meant to be practical, easy to follow steps that need

to be taken in responding to women’s concerns in post disaster situations.

They have been categorized into immediate, mid term and long term

responses. However, there could be overlap in the responses and this factor

needs to be taken into consideration in implementing the guidelines.

The guidelines draw from reports of countries that were affected by the

December 2004 tsunami: Thailand, Aceh, India, Sri Lanka and the

earthquake in northern Pakistan in October 2005.

In disaster relief efforts, a rights based approach must be adopted so

that women’s rights are promoted and safeguarded. Women’s socio

economic and cultural rights, as well as their civil and political rights must

be ensured at all times.

Gender sensitive disaster management must be based on the fundamental

principles:

1. WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS, therefore, relief

efforts should not only be based on needs, but on ensuring that

women’s human rights are protected and promoted.

2. EQUALIITY of women and men

3. NON-DISCRIMINATION against women

INTRODUCTION

These disasters occurred in vastly different places among

different populations, yet they share a common factor: during

and afterwards, women and children suffered most. That women

are disproportionately affected by disasters is indisputable-

yet it continues to be ignored: by governments, and by many

non governmental agencies involved in relief and reconstruction

efforts.

Caught in the Storm:The Impact of Natural Disasters on Women

The Global Fund for Women

Women specific requirements, such as sanitary pads and underwear, must

be on the priority list of emergency supplies.

Special care should be given to pregnant and breastfeeding women and

women with young children.

In the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami aftermath, in Tamil Nadu (India) babies

died for lack of milk. In Aceh (Indonesia) distribution of food, mattresses

and blankets was based on the needs of single adults with no consideration

of their children. As a result, mothers went hungry after sharing with

their children and had to sleep on the ground during rainy season.

IMMEDIATE RESONSES DURING DISASTER RELIEF PHASE

1. Women’s reliable and regular access to food and clean water is

important because women take care of food and water for

children, elderly and the entire family.

2. Special care should be given to pregnant and breastfeeding

women and women with young children

3. Include sanitary pads and underwear in relief supplies

4. Provide adequate separate toilets and bathrooms for women

5. Provide regular access to gynaecological services by female

health workers

6. Ensure women’s security and safety

7. Provide adequate shelter and housing

8. Provide psycho-social counselling

Identify Specific Needs of Women

Ask the women. Women are the most aware of what family needs are

and what immediate responses needed.

! Sanitary pads/towels and clean white cloth as in some

cultures women are not used to commercially manufactured

disposable pads such as Carefree brand products.

! Contraceptives

! Underwear and petticoats/underskirts

! Drinking water

! Baby food and infant milk formula

! Baby items such as diapers, blankets and clothes

! Bedding (mattresses, sheets, blankets, pillows)

! Nutritional supplements (multi vitamins, iron etc)

! Nutritious food

! Children’s clothing

! Warm clothing

! Culturally appropriate clothing (traditional clothing, e.g.

sarongs, head scarves, hijabs, salwar kameez, sarees, etc.)

! Toiletries: toilet rolls, soaps, shampoo

! Towels

! Mosquito netting

! Mosquito repellents and coils

! Spectacles, hearing aids, walking sticks

Ensure that Emergency Relief Supplies include:

Ensure that disaster affected people do not suffer from hunger, thirst

and malnutrition:

! A steady and sufficient flow of food and drinking water should be

maintained until disaster affected people are able to restore their

livelihoods, as long as it takes.

! Pregnant and breastfeeding women, widows, elderly, orphaned

children and disabled should be provided food aid until their food

security has been ensured.

! Distributed food must be of appropriate quality and fit for human

consumption.

! To meet nutritional needs, ensure access to a range of food: cereals,

pulses and fat sources.

! Basic food aid should include milk and sugar and be provided

regularly until families are able to restore food security.

! Breast milk substitutes should be included in the food aid package

for families with infants as in disaster situations under stress and

trauma mothers have lactating problems.

! Food aid should be culture specific taking into consideration food

habits of different communities.

! Consult women about the make up of the ‘food basket’ or essential

food items for distribution.

! Basic cooking facilities such as cooking utensils, stoves and firewood

must be provided.

Ensure Women’s Access to Sufficient and Adequate Food

Aceh (Indonesia)

In the first three months after the tsunami, the supply of food

and other basic needs was one of the major problems. Women

first fed their children and very often went hungry so many of

them suffered from malnutrition and hunger. Malnutrition of

pregnant and breastfeeding women led to malnutrition and

morbidity of their babies.

In addition to insufficient supply, food distributed by various

international and national agencies was mainly instant noodles.

Majority of evacuees living in makeshift tents and barracks

lacked appropriate kitchen utensils to cook instant noodles.

Other food supplies were biscuits, canned food or rice without

any accompanying side dishes and there were frequent incidents

of expired food products.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Rights in Nanggroe Aceh

Darussalam

India

Entire communities of Dalits and Irula did not receive any

assistance from the Indian Government or NGOs as they were

not seen as directly affected by the tsunami because they had

not suffered human losses and property damages. However, they

had lost their livelihood sources such as fishing and collecting

shells in backwaters that became sand clogged in the tsunami

and agricultural land became uncultivable due to salinisation.

Drinking water had become a “mirage” after the tsunami as

water sources had been salinised. With no means to earn living

and no relief support, many Dalit families were on the verge of

starvation.

“We are hungry. It is cruel to let people suffer from hunger,”

said Sundari from Kalpakam. Relief operations did not reach

the Dalits until public “hue and cry” raised a few weeks later.

Tsunami Aftermath: Human Rights Violations of Dalit Women

! Food should be distributed to everyone who lost food security as a

result of a disaster: to those who lost livelihoods and jobs as a

result of a disaster, not only those who lost family members.

! Food distribution mechanisms should respect dignity of disaster

affected people without making them fight for food or feeling like

beggars.

! Women should be receivers of food to ensure that food is not sold

by men to collect money for alcohol.

People in Devanapattinam queuing to collect relief materials from a

private charity

Food distribution should be equitable, transparent and respect

human dignity

! Include women in aid teams. Women groups need to be at the centre

of planning, implementation and management of food aid. There

should be minimal involvement of military forces for delivery of

goods in the aftermath of disasters.

! Special efforts must be made to reach out to women as in most

societies, women feel too intimidated to collect aid supplies. In

Pakistan, in the aftermath of the October 2005 earthquake a vast

majority of women headed households were left out of the

distribution system because in a conservative Muslim society women

should not be seen in public unaccompanied by men.

! Women should be encouraged to access aid directly.

! Aid distribution points should have public toilets, including separate

toilets for women, access to drinking water and shaded sitting

arrangements.

! At aid distribution points, separate queues for women should be

made, especially in cultures where gender segregation is practiced.

Aid distribution for women should be handled by women

Pakistan

In Muzaffarabad district, at a food aid distribution point, there

were two widows queuing for food in the long line of men. One

was nearly fainting from the heat and the long hours she had

been waiting for her turn to come. She also had a fever. The

distribution point had no drinking water available or toilet

facilities. Nor was there any shade or arrangements for people

to take some shelter from the heat. In the end, our research

team members had to persuade the Army personnel at the

distribution point to share some of their water with the women.

The women and others at the distribution point reported that

they had to hire a vehicle for Rs 500 to come to the distribution

point and take back the dry food supplies which were provided

there.

Earthquake Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights

in Pakistan

Women’s menstrual concerns need immediate attention. Current disaster

relief practices are culturally and gender insensitive to the needs of

women. The humiliation and embarrassment of women must be avoided when

distribution of sanitary napkins and underwear is undertaken. Women

are reluctant to approach men for their personal hygiene requirements.

Ensure that:

! males are NOT involved in the distribution of sanitary napkins and

underwear.

! women ARE involved in the distribution of sanitary napkins and

underwear.

! adequate cloth and washing facilities are provided for menstruating

women.

Ensure that Women’s Menstrual Needs Are Met

Sri Lanka

The distribution of underwear, bras and panties was carried

out publicly, with embarrassing comments about which sizes were

appropriate for which women. In addition, distribution of

sanitary products were under the control of male camp officials,

who handed them out one at a time, so women had to go back

and ask again and again. There were no contraceptives available,

even though husbands and male partners insisted on sex.

Caught in the Storm: The Impact of Natural Disasters on Women

Ensure that:

! Everyone who needs shelter has access to temporary housing

facilities. E.g. in Thailand, survivors who did not have proof of

ownership of a house before the tsunami were denied access to

temporary housing.

! Temporary shelters, including tents, must be comfortable and

habitable. In disaster situations, women tend to spend more time in

shelters than men looking after children.

! Temporary shelters should provide adequate space and privacy:

o each family should have a separate space depending on the

size of the family;

o married couples and children should have separate rooms;

o Dressing rooms for women and rooms for breast feeding

should be provided.

! Conditions conducive to disease and structural hazards should be

eliminated:

o Temporary shelters and houses must be constructed of the

material appropriate for the climate of the country affected

by the disaster

o Tar and tin sheets must never be used as construction

material for human dwellings. They trap heat and make

shelters uninhabitable. Climatic conditions should be taken

into account when constructing shelters as people may end

up living in shelters for many months.

o Roofs must not leak during rain.

o Tents and temporary houses should not be constructed too

closely together to provide some form of privacy.

Ensure that All Disaster Affected People Have Access to

Adequate Shelters

! Location of shelters should be considered carefully. They should

not be built on hills vulnerable to landslides or low lying areas

vulnerable to floods during rainy season.

! Tents need to be designed with better secure fastenings so that it

would provide a sense of security to women.

! In tent distribution, priority should be given to widows, women

headed households, male-headed households who have physical or

mental disabilities and the elderly, through direct door-to-door

service.

! Old-style tents with slanting sides need to be phased out as they

leave no space for mobility. Tents with ventilation facilities need

to be promoted. Cooling and heating mechanisms need to be

developed for maintaining temperatures inside the tents. If not,

they can be very cold in winter and very hot in summer.

! Built-in storage space should be part of tents for bedding and

clothes to keep them safe from getting wet or damaged.

Camp Lampeunerut, Aceh, flooded when the rainy season started.

Temporary shelters look more like cattle sheds than human

dwellings, Tamil Nadu

Temporary shelter built on hills damaged by landslides, Seubun

Ketapang, Aceh

Aceh (Indonesia)

After the tsunami, the government built IDPs’ barracks on the

top of the hill. The barracks had walls made of thin wood,

laminated flimsy triplex and no kitchen. There were various types

and sizes of barracks. Some barracks were the size 4x3 meters

accommodating approximately 4-7 persons. Besides being very

hot, the barracks built in March 2005 had begun to deteriorate

by early June 2005. Its thin walls had begun to peel off and

parts of the floor had started to crack. Some of the barracks

were hit by the land slide and became uninhabitable. The

facilities in the barrack were inadequate, with absence of

washing, bathing, latrine facilities. Men and women used same

bathing rooms (when such rooms were available); sexual

harassment or violence against women was frequent.

The conditions faced by women in barracks were frequently

pointed out to both the government and NGOs who visited and

also to the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency.

But until December 2005 the situation remained unchanged.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in Aceh

Adequate hygiene and sanitation facilities are important because lack

of them affects women’s reproductive health.

Ensure that:

! women have access to sufficient and regular supplies of clean water

for bathing and personal hygiene. Average water use for drinking,

cooking and personal hygiene in any household should be at least 15

litres per person per day.

! The maximum distance from any household to the nearest water

point should be 500 meters.

! Water sources and systems should be maintained to ensure

availability of appropriate quantities of water consistently and on

a regular basis.

! women have separate toilet facilities.

! toilets and bathrooms have walls, secure doors that can be locked

and a proper drainage system. Toilets should be closed structures

which enable women to use them with a degree of privacy.

! toilets and bathrooms are built of durable material to prevent men

from making peep holes.

! a maximum of 20 people per toilet. Camp management and residents

must develop a system to maintain the toilets in a clean and hygienic

condition to minimise the spread of fly and mosquito borne diseases.

! arrangements should be made for sanitary disposal of solid

waste.

! within the camps, toilets and bathrooms must be located not far

from the living quarters (50 metres) and provided with lighting to

Ensure Women’s Access to Adequate Toilet and Bathing

Facilities

ensure safety of women

! pathways to and from toilets and bathrooms must be well lit to

ensure safety of women

! private laundering areas should be available for women to wash and

dry underwear and sanitary cloths.

! dressing rooms for women and rooms for breast feeding should be

provided.

India

In Kilmanakkudi village, Kanyakumari district, there were seven

camps housing 1,225 people. Only 10 toilets and 10 bathrooms

were available for 1,225 people! Toilets and bathrooms were

either too far from camps or in the midst of camps. They lacked

proper drainage and water facilities and were unhygienic.

In Nagai district, Kesavan Palayam village camps, the bathrooms

and toilets had no doors so women found it very difficult to use

the toilets and underwent a lot of trauma. There was one hand

pump which pumped up salt water. Four water tanks were placed

near the camps but only three of the tanks were filled with

water. Each family, irrespective of the size, could get only 40

litres of water per day for their cooking and drinking needs.

Any extra requirement of water should have been met by the

family. The camp residents, mainly women and children, had to

walk as far as a ilometre away from their shelter to fetch water

from other sources like Kathanchavadi village. Rain water

reserved in a pond was used for washing and bathing. (India)

Tsunami Aftermath: Human Rights Violations of Dalit Women

Makeshift bathroom in a camp, Aceh

Makeshift bathroom in a camp, India

Men burnt cigarette holes in camp toilets made out of thick vinyl material. This

caused general distrust amongst women in using these facilities. Mothers often

reported escorting their daughters to toilets and guarding outside.” (Pakistan)

Aceh (Indonesia)

After the tsunami, the Seubun Ketapang residents occupied

barracks on the top of the hill. This not only hindered the

residents’ mobility but also the barracks did not have sufficient

water supply. The water tank was placed at the foot of the hill

so women were forced to walk up and down to fetch water. In

addition, the bathing and latrine facilities built by the

government were inappropriate for use. With no water, the

latrine could not be used. The bathing facility did not have a

sewage system and water from bathing and washing flooded

the barrack yards. Poor sanitation triggered diarrhoea in

children and several barrack’s residents, and affected women’s

reproductive health. (Indonesia)

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Rights in Nanggroe Aceh

Darussalam;

Ensure that:

! access to health services is granted to all disaster affected people

irrespective of their status: citizenship, migration, registration,

medical insurance etc. The right to health services is a fundamental

human right guaranteed by Article 25 of the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights, 1948.

! pregnant women and women with young children are identified and

provided with free medical post natal and maternity care and

additional nutrition for the women and children

! women who delivered after a disaster are provided with extra

reproductive and child health care and psycho-social counselling as

they are more vulnerable due to the stress experienced during the

disaster.

! necessary vitamins and other supplements are provided to pregnant

and lactating mothers.

! a conducive, sanitary and safe environment is set up for childbirth

purposes.

! medical assistance is provided to lactating mothers who have lost

their babies in disaster and have milk clotting in their breasts.

! adequate provision and easy access to different forms of

contraception is facilitated as soon as possible.

! medical services are offered proactively by health workers through

regular visits to camp, shelter and disaster affected communities.

! female health workers are included in medical teams servicing camps

and affected communities.

! female obstetricians and gynaecologists are at hand to take care

of maternity and child related health concerns.

Ensure Women’s Access to Free Health Care Services

! children are inoculated against childhood diseases within stipulated

time periods

! women have access to general health care clinics

! hospitalised women are provided with shelter after they leave

hospital and not asked to leave hospital even if they have no place

to go. Some of them may be disabled as a result of the disaster.

Pakistan

Injured women were brought to hospitals in the chaos in the

aftermath of the earthquake. Once they had been treated they

were asked to leave. Many of these women had no relatives with

them, as they had been evacuated by helicopters from remote

mountainous areas. The hospital personnel in many cases did not

know where their patients had come from. The women themselves

would sometimes not be able to clearly identify their villages,

or in some cases had only phone numbers through which they

could contact their families. The phone lines were not working

or there was no response from the numbers. However, even when

women had no people to look after them, they were being asked

to leave the hospital premise.

A majority of expectant mothers in the tent camps delivered

their babies in the tents. Even if medical aid was available in the

camps, the medical doctors present were mostly men. Women

and families were very hesitant to bring the doctors either to

the tents or to take women to the medical units. In nearly all

cases identified, deliveries had been carried out by mid-wives,

commonly known as dais in Pakistan. These women were charging

Rs 1,000 to 2,000 per case. Another woman in Bagh, AJK,

reported that she had to travel to Rawalpindi (about five hour’s

journey across mountainous terrain) as her delivery had to be

through C-section surgery. The cost of the operation came to

Rs 15,000 which she took as a loan and had not been able to

repay at the time the research team interviewed her. A third

woman reported walking in rain to get to the camp, and had her

delivery at the camp at night with no medical assistance. An

extreme situation was reported by a woman who had delivered

her baby whilst walking with her parents to reach a tent camp

and the umbilical cord had to be cut using a stone. The woman

was living alone in a tent camp with her four children.

Women, in the period during their pregnancies and after

delivery, had little help in the tents, and were basically looking

after themselves, to the extent that some reported fetching

water, washing clothes and cooking food themselves. At the

Mira Camp, Bisham, NWFP, according to a Cuban doctor, women

were only brought to them when their condition had

deteriorated and become serious, otherwise their husbands

or other male household members were not allowing them to

seek medical aid. In many of the tent camps there were no

female doctors on call.

Earthquake Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

One of the areas most neglected was that of reproductive and

sexual health care to tsunami affected women. Many complained

that they had no access to contraception until six months had

passed. The damage to hospitals included destruction of drug

stores and many hospitals did not have stocks of contraceptives

– pills, injectibles, loops, condoms – until several weeks after

the tsunami.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Rights in Sri Lanka

Cut Ita, a tsunami survivor from Aceh, conceived her 3 rd

child in

a tent camp. When we met her in Banda Aceh in July 2005 she

was 6 month pregnant. She was very anxious about the delivery

as hospitals charged USD 100 per day for health services. As a

survivor dependent on food handouts from aid agencies she could

not afford to pay hospital fees. However, she did not have to

pay delivery charges. She miscarried soon due to stress and

malnutrition.

APWLD

Aceh (Indonesia)

In the tsunami aftermath, women’s health in Lampuuk village

became a grave concern. Due to inadequate health services,

women in the village experienced difficulties in maintaining

their reproductive health. Even if doctors paid visits to the

village, health examinations were normally conducted in open

tents without proper examination beds or in unenclosed areas.

Therefore, women were reluctant to examine their

reproductive organs when they had any pain or ailments. By

December 2005, three pregnant and breastfeeding women were

unable to receive access to health services. They were also

unable to obtain vitamins and necessary vaccines as well as

nutritional food.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Rights in Nanggroe Aceh

Darussalam

Ensure that:

! ‘vigilance committees are formed in the communities consisting of

women to act as monitoring officers to ensure maximum security

and safety for women

! written and verbal safety guidelines are provided to be further

developed by committees themselves against possible violations

against women and children.

! women are trained to raise immediate alarms against violations in

the camp sites.

! women police officers, and if necessary, women from the armed

forces provide security in the camps.

! women police officers are stationed within the camps to record

and address safety complaints made by women in the camps and

monitor women’s rights violations in the camps.

! night security is maintained at camp sites.

! security guards (male and female) should be trained to be sensitive

to women’s apprehensions and problems in order to facilitate

assistance seeking by women

! Additional security measures need to be taken in camps and

communities to prevent abductions of women and girls for forced

prostitution, sex trafficking and trade in human internal organs.

Ensure Security and Safety of Women and Children

Pakistan

In post earthquake Pakistan, it was reported on TV news, that

a number of children had been kidnapped from their tent camp.

Two girls who escaped were able to tell their story. A group of

young girls and boys were crossing a road to get to a water site.

A vehicle came by and people from the vehicle sprayed some

substance on the children. When they regained consciousness

they found themselves in a secure building in an unknown locality

among other kidnapped children. These children had been living

with their aunt, as both parents had been killed during the

earthquake. According to the girls, kidnapped persons were used

for forceful removal of their internal organs. These sisters were

able to escape and were currently living in one of the orphanages.

The house where kidnapped children were kept was raided by

the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and a number of people

were arrested but no children were present at the facility

anymore. It is believed that other kidnapped children have been

moved to another area

Earthquake Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights

in Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Women at IDP camps were concerned about safety of their

own and their children. Although no actual incidents occurred,

there was a sense of insecurity and fear that prevailed in most

camps. A girl on her way to the makeshift toilet had been

dragged by two men but she managed to escape.There had been

attempts at molestation by men in charge of camps. Husbands

were abusive since alcohol was smuggled into the camps.There

were police and security personnel in the camps, but they were

primarily present to maintain discipline.They had not received

clear instructions regarding possible interventions and responses

to complaints of gender based violence. In some camps where

women police officers had been detailed, their presence gave

the woman and girl children a sense of security. (Sri Lanka)

Women and Media Collective, Sri Lanka

Studies show violence against women, including sexual abuse, increases

during disasters. However, because of stigma and ostracism related to

sexual violence the cases go unreported. Increased alcohol consumption

and substance abuse results in increased domestic violence and sexual

harassment in camps.

Some relief policies offering financial assistance may lead to ‘new’ forms

of violence against women, such as forced recanalisation surgery of

sterilised women in families that lost children in the disaster and forced

marriages.

Ensure:

! Accessible counselling services for women victims of violence and

other abuses

! That free legal services are provided for women survivors of

violence

! Full protection of victims of violence and witnesses from reprisals

! Accessible medical examinations on reporting of violence

! Accessible reporting procedures when violence against women is

committed

! That women are made aware of their right to be free from physical,

emotional and sexual violence

! That women are made aware of the redress available when affected

by violence (e.g. court process, police complaint, medical treatment,

counselling, support groups)

! That self help groups consisting of women are established within

the camps to give emotional and other forms of support to women

affected by violence

Protect Women from Violence and Abuse

! That ‘vigilant’ groups consisting of men and women are set up to

respond to violent incidents

! That police, government officials and non governmental workers

take women’s complaints of violence and harassment seriously and

take measures to assist women access redress mechanisms

! A ban on sale of alcohol within camp sites

! Improve lighting and transport facilities to and from the camp to

other community locations such as schools, bus stands, markets and

shops

! Government policy makers should make an assessment of the

potential impact of their interventions before adopting a policy

such as offering financial assistance to sterilised women for

recanalisation surgery and to newly married couples. Such policies

led to new forms of violence against women: forced sterilisation

and “tsunami” marriages in post-tsunami India.

Sri Lanka

In many cases, while tsunami-affected persons were in the

welfare centres set up immediately after the tsunami, women

complained of domestic violence and pressure to engage in sexual

relations by husbands. Alcoholism, male irresponsibility towards

their families and insensitivity to the lack of privacy (in

demanding sex) were cited as being some of the causes that led

to violence.

Single women, including those widowed by the tsunami,

complained of a range of sexual advances made by men in the

camps as well as by officials. In the transitional housing the

situation was not that much better because people continued

to live in very close proximity to one another, there was no

privacy and women were vulnerable to harassment and abuse.

In Batticaloa and in Galle, two women complained of attempted

sexual abuse; they had both made complaints to the Police

officers in charge of security but they had not received

adequate response. In Hambantota, one young woman had been

sexually abused and abandoned by the perpetrator who fled

the shelter when she became pregnant. Today she is subject to

marginalisation because of the child.

In the transitional housing settlements, domestic disputes

including violence were reported. These primarily related to

tensions within families because the male family members tended

to use the money received as compensation for liquor and

gambling. Men would also sell the rations for money, often

disregarding their family’s needs. As Kottegoda points out,

‘Domestic conflict has arisen because women are not directly

given monetary relief handouts which could then help better

management of household expenditures on food and other family

needs. This is because men tend to receive relief and

rehabilitation grants as head of the household, which is based

on a preconceived assumption that it is men who provide for the

family.’

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Sri Lanka

India

The government’s announcement of financial assistance to

“sterilised” women of reproductive age to undergo recanalisation

surgery caused additional pain and trauma to the surviving women

who had lost their children in the tsunami. They were forced by

their husbands to undergo recanalisation operation, which

reverses sterilisation by reconnecting the fallopian tubes. The

fact that many women had previously been encouraged by the

government to go through sterilisation operations makes the

situation all the more tragic. Some women had undergone

sterilisation because the family desperately needed the Rs. 200

(USD 4.5) offered under the government family planning scheme.

At least, 14 cases of forced recanalisation were reported in

the five surveyed districts of Tamil Nadu. “My husband

threatened me that if I do not go for recanalisation he will not

live with me. So I decided to risk recanalisation even if I die,”

said Radhika from Kalkuttam village, Kanyakumari district.

The government’s well-intended policy of providing financial

assistance to the survivors, who had planned their marriages

before the tsunami gave rise to a new phenomenon of “tsunami

marriages”. An additional incentive was a promise of a permanent

housing to newlyweds. 21 “tsunami” marriages were reported in

the surveyed areas but only two couples received the promised

compensation of Rs. 25,000 (USD 562).

There were many instances of forced marriages against the will

of girls below 18 years (minimum legal age for marriage in India)

triggered by another “well-intended” government policy. The

government announced that girls in the age group of 14 to 18

and young single women above 18 who had lost their parents in

the tsunami were eligible for cash compensation. In Sothikuppam

village only, Cuddalore district, four girls under 18 year had

been forced into marriage.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Human Rights of Dalit Women

Ensure that:

! psychological counselling for post traumatic stress is provided for

women and children, widows, elderly and disabled women

! female counsellors are at hand to provide counselling services

! psycho-social counselling facilities should be set up at camps and

temporary shelters

! psychological care should not focus on prescribing anti-depressants,

but on trauma healing and support

! self-help groups among the affected women should be formed to

give emotional support to each other. Women can heal themselves in

the long term when they are involved in helping each other overcome

suffering.

! psychological support and assistance in finding/ identifying dead

or missing family members should be provided

Ensure Women’s Access to Psycho-Social Counselling

Aceh (Indonesia)

Balai Inong (‘Women’s Houses)

Villages in Aceh have women’s houses where women meet and

exchange views, network and work together on various projects.

Having these safe houses would provide a place for women to

voice their concerns and also be a place in which they can share

their experiences, share their grief and develop their skills in

different fields.

India

Ananthi’s 5 month old baby sleeping in the cradle was washed

away into the sea. She has been using herbal treatment to relieve

the physical pain in her milk clotted breasts but she cannot deal

with the unbearable mental pain of losing her baby. There are

thousands of women like Ananthi who have to live with such pain.

And most of them are not receiving any psychological counselling.

Some of them are on the verge of insanity. 24 year old Minn,

who lost her 4 month old baby, was admitted to hospital as a

mentally disturbed patient. Rosemary, a widow, who lost her

two sons, faces abuse form the society because she was not

able to save her children. (Tamil Nadu, India)

Women’s Human Rights Concerns in Tsunami Affected

Countries, March 2005, APWLD

leading to sexual harassment and violence and lack of kitchens forcing

women to cook in unsafe make-shift facilities resulting in fires.

Women’s participation in management of camps and temporary shelters is

important to ensure that women’s needs are met. When women’s voices are

not heard, it results in lack of separate toilets and bathrooms for women

leading to sexual harassment and violence and lack of kitchens forcing

women to cook in unsafe make-shift facilities resulting in fires.

MID-TERM RESPONSES DURING THE RECOVERY PHASE

Till the tsunami struck nobody ever realised to what extent

male domination prevailed in these communities. Nobody asked

why women were not consulted. Even if one had asked the fisher

men folk they would have replied, “our women will go by what

we decide’. The men in charge of camps were shown a choice of

shelters and their decision was taken and women were not

consulted nor taken into the decision making process of choosing

the design of shelters. (Tamil Nadu, India)

Tsunami Aftermath: Human Rights Violations of Dalit Women

To ensure women’s equal access to compensation payments and

rehabilitation measures, head of household concept should be eliminated

as it discriminates against women in societies when men are normally

registered as heads of households. Information on relief assistance,

including clear procedures on applying for such assistance, should be

disseminated to all disaster affected people in camps, temporary shelters

and those outside camps and temporary shelters, including those in

hospitals and remote islands, forests and mountainous areas.

Temporary shelters for Dalits in Tamil Nadu, India

Ensure that:

! Women are elected to camp management teams/committees.

! Women are encouraged to participate in camp decision making.

! Women are consulted in the design and lay out of camps and shelters.

! Women are not represented by male family members in camp

management.

! Meetings on camp management are held at convenient times for

women to attend (for example, not late in the evenings or at night)

! If women traditionally do not come to community meetings, that

shelters or tents are visited individually to elicit women’s views.

! Conflict solving mechanisms should be set up within the camps to

deal with internal conflicts that may arise due to distribution of

aid.

Ensure Women’s Participation in Management of Camps

and Temporary Shelters

Ensure that:

! Compensation schemes are equitable and transparent. Compensation

benefits must be provided to everyone affected by a disaster,

directly or indirectly: those who lost livelihoods and jobs as a result

of a disaster, not only those who lost assets.

! Government and aid agencies should ensure that relief and

rehabilitation measures are provided equitably and impartially by

adopting clear and transparent targeting mechanisms and criteria

such as making public the list of disaster victims and the list of

beneficiaries.

! Compensation payment should be made on individual basis, not to

head of household.

! Cash compensation payments should be made to both spouses.

Reports indicate men tend to spend compensation money on alcohol

and other things not related to family needs.

! Compensation should be paid to joint bank accounts, in case of

married couples.

! Compensation for loss of assets such as houses/boats/equipment

should be adequate and sufficient to replace lost assets. Adequate

compensation is important to help people to restore their livelihoods

and start earning income for the families.

! In disaster situations, death certificates should not be the main

eligibility criteria for compensation for loss of a family member. In

India, with thousands of people missing after the tsunami, women

who could not present dead bodies of their husbands were not

eligible for compensation for loss of a husband.

! If married sons are given the right to claim access to benefits (the

right to claim house damages), married daughters living with their

parents should also be given the same rights.

Ensure Women’s Equal Access to Compensation Payments

and Rehabilitation Measures

! Government agencies should not set a short period limit to apply

for relief assistance and compensations as disaster victims may

have failed to apply within the given period because they were in

hospital, observing mourning rituals or in remote areas without

access to information on relief assistance.

! Recognise the right of persons living in rented accommodation or

engaging in business in rented premises to receive compensation

for their losses.

Sri Lanka

The Tsunami Housing Policy states that cash grants are supposed

to go to the owner of the previous land/house. In practice the

cash allocations have been deposited into existing bank accounts

which were used earlier to deposit tsunami assistance grants

of Rupees 5000 (about $49). In most cases these bank accounts

are in the name of the male head of the household. Although the

banks were instructed to make these accounts joint accounts,

often this did not happen.

The District Secretaries or the relevant authorities should make

sure that the housing cash grants go into bank accounts owned

by the previous land/house owner, especially when the previous

owner was the woman of the household, or go into joint accounts.

(Sri Lanka)

Gender Sensitive Guidelines on Implementing the

Tsunami Housing Policy, COHRE

Pakistan

Compensatory polices were male biased. Only married males were

eligible for compensatory cheques for the loss of a home. A

widowed woman mentioned that her married daughter, who had

been living with her, was denied access to compensation although

thousands of similar claims by sons were immediately honoured

by the government officials.

Earthquake Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights

in Pakistan

Thailand

The government provided higher compensation payments for

damaged or lost boats which had been registered prior to the

tsunami. Many tsunami affected fisher families had not

registered boats because they were unaware of registration

requirements. Even if the boats were registered, the

compensation amount was insufficient for fisherwomen to

recover their livelihoods. This is a critical problem in situations

where women have lost their husbands/ breadwinners. The

women have additional household burdens where they have the

responsibility to earn a sufficient income to support the family.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Thailand

Muslim women could not access most of the relief available

during the first weeks after the tsunami because they had gone

into the 40 day period of mourning required by their religion.

They also had to encounter many obstacles in trying to register

for long-term benefits after the lists prepared by government

officials for relocation, for example, had been closed. A woman

from Galle who had been hospitalised after the tsunami due to

injuries said that she could not make proper applications for

relief and therefore had trouble finding allocation of space in

a camp. Some had received the outright grant of Rs. 5000/ per

month for a period of between two to four months. There were

some who had not received this at all. Again, this seemed to

depend on how successful the women were in getting access to

government officials.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in Sri

Lanka

Ensure that:

! Support, including financial compensation, is provided on an

individual basis, rather than based on ‘head of household’ concept.

In Thailand, the government paid twice as much to families for the

funeral expenses of men than for those of women based on the

assumption that men are heads of households.

! Government and aid agencies should not identify the ‘head of the

household’ as the main claim holder. In India, compensation for loss

of children was given only to the hands of the men unless the

husband died in the tsunami. This resulted in some men spending

compensation money on alcohol on other things not related to family

needs.

! ‘Head of household’ concept should be removed from legislation

and government policy implementation acts, including official

documentation.

Eliminate Head of Household Concept

Sri Lanka

Government compensation for loss often completely excludes

women in societies where only males are recognised as heads of

households. The Sri Lankan government offered 5,000 rupees

(about $49) to families affected by the tsunami, but in

Batticaloa, the regional capital of the eastern coastal area,

authorities recognised only male headed households, so women

whose husbands had died could not claim the money.

Sarala Emmanuel, Suriya Women’s Development Centre, Sri

Lanka

Thailand

The Thai government made a policy that as long as the name of

the head of the household appears on the form or document,

full compensation can be paid. Such regulations have been

difficult to follow in some households where the head of the

household has been unable to perform the role of a breadwinner.

For example, the head of the household is ill and the responsibility

has fallen on a daughter. Adopted measures do not take into

consideration the actual situation where women perform the

tasks of a head of the household. Government officials refuse

to recognise such situations and there is no mechanism to ensure

that women who have been the breadwinners of the household

receive equitable assistance.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in

Thailand

Ensure that:

! Information on relief assistance, including clear procedures on

applying for such assistance, is disseminated to all disaster affected

people in camps, temporary shelters and those outside camps and

temporary shelters, including those in hospitals and remote islands,

forests and mountainous areas.

! Special efforts are made to reach out to women in their shelters

within the camps as in some cultures women do no participate in

public meetings where information is normally announced.

! Information is in reader friendly simple language and can be

understood by all.

! Special efforts should be made to disseminate information to

illiterate communities.

! Women officials are involved in the dissemination of information.

! the dissemination of information which provides information on

facilities/ loans/ grants available for women to start on livelihoods

such as coir work, pottery, and other small and medium enterprises

! All information is shared with women who cannot access information

easily due to cultural and religious constraints and that assistance

to those who failed to apply for assistance due to lack of access to

information is provided.

Ensure Women’s Access to Information on Relief and

Rehabilitation Measures

Thailand

‘I was in the hospital so I did not hear or receive any information

about government assistance for children. By the time I came

out of the hospital and applied three times for the assistance,

there was no response from the government. I found out from

the government official later that I had missed the deadline

and that the fund for this had already finished,’ said Nu Lee,

tsunami survivor in Thailand.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in

Thailand

Ensure that:

! Halls or community centres are provided so that educational

activities can resume as soon as possible

! Food, school uniforms, books and other stationery items are

provided for children free of charge

! Schools are relocated and rebuilt as soon as possible

! Temporary housing is located close to schools

! Free transport facilities are provided for children to travel to school

Ensure Children’s Access to Education

Aceh (Indonesia)

In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami hardly anyone paid

attention to schooling of children. Later, when public transport

services resumed, they were limited to certain hours. This caused

difficulties for many school children who had to go to school

outside the village. Meanwhile, school cost became nearly

unaffordable as there was an extraordinary post tsunami price

hike. To cover the cost of schooling, mothers had to divert funds

from other needs, in particular, money for nutritious food. Many

children in Lham Lhom resumed schooling, but later quitted due

to their school being far away and absence of transportation.

The school lacked equipment and the school fee was too high.

Several families decided to stop education for their girls and

give opportunity for the boys to continue school.

The Indonesian government did not have a clear plan for

reconstruction of the education facilities in the tsunami

affected areas. A year after the tsunami, there were still many

school-aged children facing difficulty in reaching schools

located far from their settlements. In addition, there were no

serious efforts to bring new teachers in to replace many

teachers who had died during the tsunami. The government also

did not provide financial aid to help families to send their

children back to school.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in

Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam

To ensure women’s needs are addressed, government and aid agencies

should involve women in the consultative and decision making processes:

from camp administration and disaster management committees to policy

making bodies for reconstruction efforts.

Dalit women received fishing nets from SRED, a local NGO

LONG TERM RESPONSES DURING

RECONSTRUCTION PHASE

“Women must be at the heart of all recovery and reconstruction

processes. For decades, they have been the lifeline of their

communities, leading survival systems and mutual aid networks,

including among the internally displaced and refugee

communities. Women are not just victims, they are survivors,

and they need to be part of the solution. The reweaving of the

social fabric of life is the foundation for reconstruction and a

necessary part of the healing process. It is women, in their

families and their communities, who are playing this role.”

Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM

Participation of disaster affected women at local and national levels in all

aspects of recovery and reconstruction is important. Women must actively

contribute not only to matters concerning women, but also be involved in

issues concerning the community side by side with male members of the

community. Aid agencies must make special efforts to reach out to women

because in some cultures gender segregation and women’s seclusion norms

restrain women even from accessing food aid, let alone participating in

community meetings to voice their concerns.

Ensure that:

! Women are included in all decision making structures at every level:

national, local and village governments, aid agencies, international

and local NGOs and community based groups.

! To ensure that government policies, procedures and practices are

gender sensitive,

Coordination between the different relief agencies in the disaster

affected areas that relief measures are applied to all irrespective of

official procedures (registered and non registered migrants, registered

and non registered fishermen, ethnic groups)

A unit that deals specifically with the concerns of women post disaster

must be established within institutional structures set up to deal with

post tsunami reconstruction.

! All decision making processes concerning affected communities are

transparent, just, equitable and fair.

! Government and aid agencies should consult with the affected

people in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of

their assistance programmes.

! Affected communities, especially women, are consulted about

decisions concerning their lives: from closure of camps and

temporary shelters, relocation and design of houses to employment

generation and livelihoods opportunities.

Ensure Women’s Participation in Decision Making Processes

for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction

! Relocation of affected communities must be implemented with

community’s consent and should not be linked to compensation

conditions such as if people do not relocate they will not receive

compensations for lost/damaged houses.

! Women should be consulted in important decisions such as relocation

and closure of camps and temporary shelters. Women should have

ample information and time to move. The burden of packing and

getting organised is the basic responsibility of women and they need

time to plan according to the needs of their families.

! Women’s involvement in decision making in conservative societies

should be facilitated through affirmative action approach to assist

in overcoming resistance from various stakeholders in every level

of decision making.

! Women’s empowerment in conservative societies, such as Indonesia

and Pakistan, requires special process to overcome numerous

obstacles in policy making and legislation, especially removing

Shariah laws restricting women’s movement and conduct.

Thailand

The government did not provide permanent houses to those who

refused to relocate from villages where they used to live before

the tsunami to “safer” areas away from the seashore. The

government claimed the relocation was necessary for ‘safety’

of the people concerned. However, relocation without

community’s consultation and consent is a violation of their rights

to housing and participation and not sustainable. Most of the

affected people earned their living from fishing and related

activities and relocation meant losing their jobs and livelihoods

so they refused to move away from the sea. Forced relocation

was a “second tsunami blow” for these people. For many women

fisherfolk, relocation away from the sea meant a change of

livelihood strategy that they were not prepared for.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Thailand

Pakistan

In the aftermath of the October 2005 earthquake, the most

outrageous government policy was the arbitrary closing of the

tent camps by March 31, 2006, just six month after the disaster.

The earthquake survivors had been forced to come down to the

valleys from the mountainous areas to go through the winter. In

March when it was still cold and raining causing landslides in

the mountains, the camp residents were ordered to evacuate.

Transporters were charging an arm and a leg to get people to

their villages from the tent cities. The army was ordering truck

drivers to take people from the tent villages to their points of

destination. However, truck drivers were dumping people in the

middle of the way, leaving them high and dry on the roadside. In

many cases, there were no roads right up to the village; hence

people had to trek through treacherous mountainous paths, in

freezing rain, carrying not only their tents and belongings but

also the weak and frail members of their family.

Earthquake Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in

Pakistan

Consult women about their housing needs and requirements related to the

design of houses:

! type of house, design and size depending on the family size

! houses must have toilets, bathrooms and kitchens

! houses must have water supply and sanitation systems and

electricity

! houses must ensure security, privacy and dignity of women

! the design of houses must take into account lifestyles, livelihoods

and occupations of women.

! Adequate housing must allow access to employment options,

healthcare, schools and other social services. There must not be

excessive financial demands on the household with respect to

transportation.

! Women’s special requests should be taken into consideration in the

allocation of land and housing such as cluster housing for extended

families

! Prevent bias, favouritism and discrimination by officials - at

national, local and village levels - responsible for the allocation of

permanent housing.

Ensure that Reconstruction of Houses Meets Women’s and

Family Needs

Aceh (Indonesia),

The delay in housing construction was caused by several factors,

including: (1) The government at the earlier stage showed its

reluctance to start the housing construction in villages allegedly

related to GAM (armed separatist group); and (2) Lack of

coordination between the government and NGOs constructing

houses. In addition, there had been no women’s involvement in

the process since on November 2005 BRR stopped using the

community driven approach to housing construction.

In Lampuuk village, the construction process commenced only

in November 2005 after a long competition process between

several international NGOs was over. In Seubun Ketapang, 80

houses had been built by Mercy Corps. However, the houses were

built on the location of the old residential area that has been

inundated by water since the tsunami. The surface of the land

had sunk after the tsunami. The houses have no kitchen, bathing/

latrine facility and water supply system. Therefore, many

residents, especially women, were reluctant to move to the new

houses from the barracks. The water pockets became mosquito

breeding grounds. Similarly, in Lham Lhom village, new houses

were not equipped with kitchens, bathrooms, and water supply

systems.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Aceh

The house of a Dalit woman rebuilt by DFDL, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India

Thailand

The government constructed houses without prior consultation

with the beneficiaries and did not study the livelihood patterns

of the local communities before undertaking the construction.

The outcome is a general dissatisfaction of the people who

believe they deserve better quality of assistance. “The

government provided us with a permanent home built by the

military. Its size is about 6 x 6 metres for a family of 4 people.

It’s very small. The kitchen of my old house was the size of this

entire house. I have requested the government to build an

extension because it is extremely crowded for such a big family

like mine. Nonetheless, we will never know when this will come

through. Many of us here cannot rely on the government anymore.

My children do not have a room to play or any privacy like they

used to. Our lives have changed from white to black,” said Mrs.

Woranuch Chantalor, a widow with three children from Kam

Kem village, Phang Nga province who lost her husband in the

tsunami.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Thailand

! The Government must prioritise allocation of land to communities

that have to relocate from disaster affected land.

! Create laws and policies that guarantee women’s equal rights to

ownership of land and property allowing them to own and inherit

land from their husbands/fathers.

! Ensure that wives and daughters inherit the land and property in

societies with strong religious or customary laws where property

inheritance rights go to the deceased husband’s brother in case of

absence of a son.

! Ensure that dowry property belonging to women prior to disaster

is maintained.

! Ensure a total rejection of the ‘head of the household’ concept as

it could result in women losing their rights to land they owned prior

to the disaster.

! Recognise the right of spouses to joint ownership of land, house

and property. New policies made in the aftermath of disasters should

break existing patriarchal norms. For instance, land allocated to

replace land lost to disaster, should be registered in joint ownership

of husband and wife, rather than giving full claims only to the (male)

head of the household.

! In dispute situations that tend to occur in post-disaster situations,

the government must respect land, property and housing rights of

women and protect them from violence and eviction.

! People living in rented accommodation prior to disaster must also

be provided with housing.

Enure Women’s Equal Ownership Rights to Land, House

and Property

India

Introduction of a buffer zone restricting construction and

reconstruction of buildings within 500 metres from the shoreline

with the well-intended purpose of protecting coastal

communities from future tsunamis meant that some communities

had to relocate. Identifying land for construction of permanent

housing for relocated communities turned out to be a major

problem. The Government was not willing to provide or acquire

alternative land expecting aid agencies to purchase land for

the communities. Most aid agencies did not have funds to

purchase land. Others, such as TATA LEAP, a construction

company, had to buy land from the government and construct

houses at its own expense.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

India

Sri Lanka

In the post-tsunami context, most of the land made available

for re-housing was state land. Since state policy in relation to

land ownership is informed by the categorisation of the male as

the ‘head of the household’, the consequence is that women are

clearly discriminated against when State land is allocated for

families. Deprived of legal ownership of the land, women become

vulnerable to eviction from their home; this makes them also

more vulnerable to domestic violence. Lack of title also makes

it impossible for female heads of household to use the land as

collateral with banks.

In the Muslim community in the East there is a customary

practice of bestowing land received by mothers as dowry or

inheritance to daughters. Given the male bias implicit in much of

the post tsunami relocation programmes, there were concerns

that if land alienation was not done sensitively, it would have a

negative impact on the land rights that girls and women have

traditionally enjoyed. Lobbying for policy change that would

ensure joint ownership between spouses in the process of land

allocation has been a critical demand of CATAW and other

women’s groups working with tsunami-affected women.

The government’s policy was to replace a house for a house which

benefited house-owners. Thus, people who had lived in rented

premises were not entitled to any kind of compensation of re-

housing, even though they had lost all their possessions and been

displaced. In the case of extended families who had lived in one

large family home, only the chief householder was registered as

entitled to a replacement house. Thus, even during the time of

the interviews, almost 14 to 16 months after the tsunami, families

were living in transitional shelters without any guarantee of

permanent housing or even compensation.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Sri Lanka

Aceh (Indonesia)

The tsunami brought up the issue of women’s ownership rights

to land. According to Islamic inheritance laws and Acehnese

tradition, land is transferred from a man to his son or to his

brother. A woman can only have land certificate under her name,

if she does not have a son and her husband does not have

brothers. After marriage, a woman’s land certificate can no

longer be under her name, it is changed to her husband’s.

Acehnese women generally follow the very strict Acehnese

tradition based on the Islamic male inheritance laws. Opposing

the tradition can be considered as opposing the family, Islam,

custom and even God’s will.

In post-tsunami reconstruction, Islamic inheritance laws are

clearly preventing women who lost husbands from registering

as potential beneficiaries of housing assistance. The village

government made a list of tsunami survivors, who needed houses

and registered a man’s name as the landowner. The land

previously registered to the man’s name cannot be automatically

changed into woman’s name. As a consequence, widows had to

constantly go back and forth to the land administration in order

to get land.

In Lampuuk village with over 90% of its 6,500 population killed

in the tsunami, there were many land disputes with claims by

family members of victims living outside of Lampuuk, making

widows vulnerable to eviction and poverty. Many family members

of the dead victims consider that inheritance of land does not

automatically fall into the hands of women but should be

transferred to the family of their deceased husbands. Widows,

therefore can no longer manage agricultural land around the

village because the land has been claimed by many other

interested parties.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Aceh

Thailand

Entire communities were unable to return home after the tsunami

because of pre-tsunami land disputes. Out of 418 villages

affected by the tsunami, 81 had insecure land ownership rights.

The claimants took advantage of the disaster situation, when

people had to flee their houses, and tried to prevent them from

returning to their homes. One of the most violent takeovers took

place in Lam Pom Community, Phang Nga province, a seaside

settlement of ex-labourers in the tin mine. When the mining

concession ended, they established their own community, which

villagers have called home for more than 40 years. From living in

thatched-roof huts with no roads and electricity, they developed

their homes and community and had their houses registered with

the province administration in 1990. The land dispute started in

2001 when a powerful businessman presented the villagers with

a land ownership document and ordered them to leave. The

community refused to do so. One day after the tsunami struck,

his company made claim to the land by sealing off the area using

a group of hired armed men. “We could not get into the area to

look for the bodies of our missing family members. Electricity

and water were cut off. In February, we managed to come back.

Someone from the company came to take our photos. We heard

gunshots that night. I begged them in tears to let me in so I

could find my daughter and my relatives. They threatened: ‘if

the tsunami did not take your life we will take it,” said Ratri

Kongwatami, a 32 year old woman who has been in the forefront

of the community’s struggle.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Thailand

In post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction, employment and income

generation assistance for women must facilitate their food security,

women’s access to natural resources and poverty alleviation at the

community level.

Reconstruction programmes must have a special focus on women’s economic

empowerment and offer them income generating opportunities. In disaster

situations, women who lost their husbands/breadwinners face difficulties

accessing income generating assistance because the existing opportunities

normally target men.

! Provide small grants for women to help restore income generating

activities they were involved before the disaster: food processing,

cooking food for sale, sewing, lace and rope making etc.

! Give women easy access to working capital, materials and resources

for income generating activities, technical and marketing assistance.

! Offer training in new skills for women aimed at facilitating their

access to new areas of income earning activity.

! Facilitate women’s access to bank loans for small business

development.

! Banks and other finance, trading and business institutions should

be supported and encouraged to create special structures for

providing financial aid and investment advice to small and medium

women entrepreneurs in the disaster-affected areas.

! Support to employment generation must be monitored and evaluated

to make sure that access to loans and credit do not lead to

increased indebtedness and overexploitation of natural resource

towards commercialisation.

! Banks and other lending institutions must grant loan repayment

holidays to persons who obtained loans prior to the disaster.

Ensure Women’s Equal Access to Livelihood Opportunities

! Governments must provide livelihood alternatives to relocated

communities. Ensure that in relocated areas communities have access

to employment options, healthcare, schools and other social services.

! Women should have complete control of their livestock in camps

and temporary shelters so that they can access milk from their

dairy cows.

Sri Lanka

Restoration of livelihoods constitutes a large segment of the

post-tsunami reconstruction programmes. Much of the focus

has been on support for large-scale economic development

programmes, often oriented towards men on the basis that they

are the head of the household and the primary breadwinner.

Thus, there was widespread distribution of motorised fishing

boats, nets and other fishing equipment, reconstruction of big

public markets. The Sri Lanka Donor Forum, for example, called

for investment in housing, transportation, infrastructure and

livelihood restoration for fishermen, small farmers and small

and micro enterprises, with almost no reference to gender based

livelihood needs and the specificity of women’s work in the

informal sector. The small scale but essential activities that

women traditionally engaged in, such as processing fish, making

and selling foodstuffs, lace-making, making rope, mats and other

household items from coconut husk fibre have been largely

ignored even though they constituted a critical part of the

family economy.

In addition, women were still held responsible for repayment of

loans obtained from banks prior to the tsunami, even though

their means of livelihood had been clearly destroyed and they

were not generating any income. Banks and other lending

institutions insisted that they keep up with their repayment

schedules. Several of the women in Galle and Hambantota had

obtained loans from Fisheries Cooperatives or from the Samurdhi

Bank (State-sponsored Poverty Alleviation programme) and

were under great pressure due to the repayment dilemma.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in Sri

Lanka

Aceh (Indonesia)

Gender blind disaster management prevented women from

receiving adequate assistance from the government and NGOs.

Even organisations under the United Nations, such as Food and

Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and various other international

organisations, were weak in their assessments of women’s needs.

The assistance was male-biased and some support, such as

business capital assistance for poultry or fishing, even

strengthened patriarchy and discrimination against women.

Poultry assistance, in fact, targeted mainly men, rather than

supporting women headed households struggling to survive.

Excluding women from assistance programmes increased their

multiple burdens because they were forced to look for work

outside their village/houses and look after their children, elderly

and sick as well as manage household chores. Families’ food

security worsened gradually as the high level of inflation after

the tsunami increased the main commodities prices up to 40%.

Public transport operators even had to stop their business.

By 2005, women in the Lham Lhom village were generally

incapable of restoring their economic activities due to the lack

of business capital. The government and some NGOs provided

grant for equipment and capital to men. Women were

disregarded and did not receive any direct aid or working

capital. Some organisations provided sewing machines or working

capital to help women resume their pre-tsunami work. However,

the assistance could not help much as they have lost access to

markets.

Two months following the tsunami, some women managed to set

up food shops at their homes. However, such activities were

prohibited by the village authority under the pretext that all

commercial activities should be carried out in market places to

ensure rehabilitation of village markets. However, the actual

reasons behind the prohibitions are that the local authority has

a vested interest in collecting taxes from the traders. Secondly,

husbands disapprove of their wives working outside home instead

of attending to their husbands.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Aceh

Pakistan

Some camps had specific space allocated for livestock which

the earthquake affected people had brought with them. In two

of these camps, it was observed that although community

members were looking after their livestock, they did not have

control over the milk from them. Army personnel would allow

them to access milk once in maybe two or three days. Milk was

such a needed food item, especially for women with young

children, but even then they were not allowed access to milk

which was from their own livestock.

Earthquake Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights

in Pakistan

Women’s groups should use post disaster reconstruction processes to break

the old patriarchal norms and educate women about their human rights:

from right to have national identity cards, separate bank accounts to land

and property rights.

! Support human rights awareness education programmes for women

within the camps and in their homes if it is not possible to meet

elsewhere convenient to women

! Provide women with necessary skills to face new challenges as heads

of households due to male family members death, disappearance or

incapacitation.

! Provide male family members with the necessary skills to take on

new responsibilities of child care due to the death, disappearance

or incapacitation of female family members

! Support young female orphans with advice on looking after

themselves due to death of parents or adult family members.

! Awareness programmes must emphasise that forced marriage of

girls under the age of eighteen is illegal and attracts penalties.

! Support ongoing gender awareness programmes for camp officials

and security personnel.

Raising Women’s Awareness of their Human Rights

Mobilisation and empowerment of disaster affected women is important

for protection of their rights, especially in conservative patriarchal

cultures with women’s seclusion norms. In Aceh and Pakistan, religious

leaders further marginalised women by blaming them for invoking disasters

with their ‘immoral’ behaviour. Furthermore, in Aceh, they enforced stricter

Islamic laws with shariah police beating women for failure to wear a

headscarf. As a consequence, women are intimidated even to come out of

their houses, let alone, voice their needs and concerns.

Ensure that:

! Women’s organisations set up coalitions/alliances to advocate for

human rights of women in disaster situations

! Women affected by disaster are organised among themselves to

advocate for their rights and support each other.

! Advocate for removing laws restricting women’s movement and

conduct.

Mobilise and Empower Women to Advocate for their

Human Rights

Sri Lanka

As a response to the tsunami and to the needs of women

survivors, Sri Lankan women’s groups came together to set up

the Coalition for Assisting Tsunami Affected Women (CATAW).

Providing direct assistance to build the capacity of locally based

women’s organisations to deal with the day to day issues of

tsunami recovery and rehabilitation efforts, CATAW acted as

an advocacy centre to ensure that women’s concerns are met

and women are included in decision-making positions and

processes at the local, regional and national level. Key issues

were those of protection for women and girls affected by the

Tsunami and to lobby for a gender responsive rights-based

approach to post Tsunami assistance.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in Sri

Lanka

Aceh (Indonesia)

After visits and relaxed discussions, the main researchers

encouraged a number of women to make three to four “small

groups” (often called “cell”). The discussions started from these

small groups and then followed with sessions. At the next stage,

a focus group discussion was created by involving various cells

and discussed issues that had been discussed in the cells. The

Focus Group Discussions were not only for identifying issues

based on common experiences but also as a means to learn and

build awareness together. It also provided a platform to build a

consensus for future common actions. The Focus Group

Discussions were followed with small group discussion for in-

depth understanding on specific issues. It continued with

several group discussions until they understood the problems

faced, roots of the problems, their impact to women and society,

and the important factors that affect problems faced.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Rights Violations in Aceh

States have an obligation to promote, respect and fulfil fundamental human

rights of people affected by disasters irrespective of gender, race, caste,

class, ethnicity, citizenship, religion, migration and registration status and

other factors.

Ensure that:

! Disaster relief is based on a humanitarian and human rights

approach.

! Government and aid agencies engage in relief operations and

reconstruction activities without discrimination based on gender,

class, ethnicity, religion, age and other factors.

! Government and relief organisations make a special effort to reach

out to marginalised groups such as migrants, Dalits, ethnic and

religious minorities, sex workers, workers in the informal economic

sector (small fisherfolk) to ensure they have access to basic needs

as food, water, shelter and health services.

! Women should be mobilised to advocate for policies that secure

the rights of vulnerable groups of women such as migrant workers,

Dalit women, stateless persons, women belonging to different

ethnic groups, sea gypsies, women in service sectors etc

Protect Vulnerable and Marginalised Groups

! Ensure that in disasters, migrant workers are not discriminated

against, whether they are documented or undocumented workers

and have access to relief assistance: food, shelter and health

services.

! Governments must not arrest and deport migrant workers during

disasters.

! Governments must protect migrant workers’ rights by reviewing

the existing laws and registration processes to ensure that migrant

workers have access to registration and legal status.

! Governments must take measures to protect women migrant workers

from exploitation and violence at home and at work.

Protect Migrant Workers

Thailand

The tsunami exposed the plight of migrant workers in Thailand,

mostly from neighbouring Burma. In the immediate after of the

tsunami, they had to hide in the forest for fear of arrest as

their identity cards and registration documents had been

washed away by the tsunami. They could not even come out to

recover dead bodies of their family members. Since they had

lost ID and registration documents they were denied access to

government assistance and health services.

After the tsunami, the migrant workers, especially those

employed in the commercial fishing industry and service sector,

including the entertainment sectors, were affected badly.

There was no accurate data on how many had died. For those

who survived, they faced loss of employment, and loss of legal

documents such as identification cards and other proof of

registration. As there is no baseline data available on the

population of migrant workers, it was difficult to confirm the

number of deaths.

Human rights violations and violence against migrant workers

were rampant in Thailand before the tsunami. Migrants were

abused by Thai government officials, local communities and

employers, including delayed payment of wages, denial of

compensation for overtime work, underpayment, a lack of life

insurance, rape, robbery, assault and etc. Women are more

subject to abuse. They are at risk from sexual harassment and

sexual assault at workplace, at home, and in the community.

Especially, women working on rubber plantations face sexual

abuse by both Thai and Burmese men. Undocumented migrant

women normally do not report abuse to the police for fear of

arrest and deportation. When they do report to the police, no

legal action is taken by the police because they are illegal

workers. In some cases, the woman is forced to marry her

assaulter. In cases, where Thai men raped Burmese women, they

have a very big chance to escape and never held accountable

for their crimes

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in

Thailand

Special efforts must be made to reach out to widows, women headed

households, disabled and the elderly. In some cultures, widows face

ostracism and abuse and can be left out of general assistance efforts.

Ensure that:

! Disabled, the elderly and women headed households in cultures

where women’s seclusion is practiced, have access to aid supplies.

! Housing, land and property rights of widows (widowed pre

disaster and due to disaster) and women headed households are

protected.

! In camps and temporary shelters, toilets and bathrooms have

relevant facilities for use by people with disabilities

! If camps do not have facilities for disabled people, they should

be provided shelter in existing specialised facilities for people

with disabilities.

! Aids such as walking sticks, hearing aids, spectacles, should be

provided as soon as possible.

Reach out to Widows and Women Headed Households,

Disabled and Elderly

Sri Lanka

Women faced a range of issues because of their single status:

getting recognition from the state in terms of the benefits such

as land allocation, housing allocation and so on, was not

straightforward because of the systematic assumption of male

as head of household. The social and cultural stigma attached

to widowhood was also cited by many women as being an

impediment to their ability to be self-reliant. Several women in

both the east and the south said that they were blamed for the

death of their husbands, and that they were told that it was

their ‘bad luck’ that led to the untimely death of their husband.

In several cases, women who had been living in joint family

situations prior to the tsunami had to battle their husband’s

family for their due after the husband was killed in the tsunami.

In the east, one woman said that she had been cast out of both

her family and the family of her husband after he was killed in

a politically motivated shooting 3 months after the tsunami.

Looking at the cases in which women complained of sexual

harassment, abuse and assault, it was single women who were

most vulnerable.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in Sri

Lanka

Pakistan

One of the interviewed women, who had lost her husband, four

daughters, two sons and two grandchildren, had severe injuries

to her legs and was unable to walk. . Right after the earthquake,

she had been carried by her brother who was on foot himself.

After reaching a more populated area, an army officer had given

them Rs 300 to get a taxi to the hospital. Later she received Rs

25,000 (USD 420) as government compensation for her injuries.

Apart from this monetary assistance, there was no help to

provide her with a more comfortable place to stay in keeping

with her medical needs, nor was transportation assistance

provided to visit various hospitals. She was moved from the

hospital to the tent camp carried on a bed (charpai). It had

been raining in the past few days, and the tent camp had been a

quagmire of mud and slippery, sliding pathways, an absolute

death trap even for the able-bodied. It was clearly a gross

violation of the woman’s right to health care and safety.

However, her transportation to such a highly dangerous site at

that particular point in time was just one of the many abuses

she had suffered since the earthquake. For the past six months

she had been shifted from one hospital to another. In between,

she had been staying with her brother in one of the camps. It

needs to be pointed out that using squat toilets in the camp

must have been a torture for a woman with a leg injury.

Earthquake Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights

in Pakistan

In some cultures, caste discrimination is still strong and may prevent relief

assistance reaching low caste communities.

! Government and aid agencies should ensure that relief and

reconstruction activities are implemented without discrimination

based on caste, class, ethnicity, religion, and other factors.

! Government and aid agencies should ensure low caste people have

equal access to relief supplies – food, water, health services,

compensation benefits and housing.

India

Dalits, or so called untouchables, are denied their basic human

rights and face the most terrible forms of deprivation and abuse

under normal circumstances. The problems of caste

discrimination have added to the misery caused by the tsunami.

Entire communities of Dalits were left out of government’s and

aid agencies’ relief assistance for several weeks and suffered

from severe hunger and thirst. Indian authorities discriminated

in providing financial assistance to the families of deceased

Dalits. Dalit areas have been the last to have electricity and

water supplies restored during rehabilitation efforts.

At Muttukaddu relief camp; an Irula (low caste tribal group)

was beaten up by fisher folk for demanding milk at a centre set

up by an NGO. The relief materials designated Irulas and Dalits

were diverted.

Women could not go near water pumps to get water as fisher

folk scorned at them and drove them away.

Dalits’ temporary shelters had no toilets and looked more like

cattle sheds than human dwellings.

Women’s Human Rights Concerns in Tsunami Affected

Countries, APWLD

Reach out to Low Caste People

! Government and aid agencies should ensure that relief and

reconstruction activities are implemented without discrimination

based on citizenship.

! Governments must grant citizenship to stateless people so that they

can be protected and have access to relief assistance: food, water,

shelter, health services, compensation and other support during

disasters.

Ensure Stateless People’s Access to Relief Support

Thailand

In the tsunami affected areas, stateless communities are found

in Ranong province. They were made ‘stateless’ as a result of the

national border demarcation imposed by the British between

Thailand and Burma, a British colony between 1824 and 1948.

These people lived along the border of the two countries, normally

in the hills or jungles, and were left out of the government surveys.

This resulted in unclear nationality status. These people look like

Thai and speak the Thai language. However, they have no birth

certificates, no registration documents or IDs, no usual practice

of death reports and no right to vote in the elections. Hence,

they are not protected by the Thai laws, have no labour and

property rights and no access to education. They are, therefore,

practically non-existent in Thailand. There is no record of how

many stateless people died during the tsunami.

“We the Moken in Tap Tawan village, never got any help from the

government. When they came to distribute aid in the tent camp,

we always waited for our names to be called. But we waited in

vain. We even had identification cards but we were never

included. I don’t understand why. Our names were never on the

list because we do not have Thai citizenship. During the first

few days we stayed in a tent but they didn’t give me temporary

home so I went to stay in the mountains”, said Lai, a sea gypsy,

tsunami survivor in Thailand.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in Thailand

Women – victims of disasters in armed conflict situations are most

vulnerable to deprivation, violence and abuse by conflicting groups. Efforts

must be made to provide assistance and protection.

Governments and international aid agencies, especially UN, must prioritise

reaching peace agreements between the conflicting parties, including:

! End all military actions in disaster zone

! Let humanitarian aid agencies into disaster zones

! Ensure free movement of people and distribution of relief

! Do not prevent people from accessing livelihoods sources to ensure

food security: sea, forests, agricultural land.

! Do not station military personnel in IDP camps “for security reasons”

if they are one of the conflicting parties. In Sri Lanka, government

military presence in camps caused deaths of civilians when Tamil

Tigers launched attacks on the government forces.

Protect Women – Victims of Disasters and Armed Conflict

Situations

Aceh (Indonesia)

Lampuuk Village was reached by emergency assistance three days

after the tsunami. The area is relatively easily reachable because

its location is at the edge of the coast, while Seubun Ketapang

and Lham Lhom villages, situated at the foothill, were reached

only on day six. The delay in evacuation and relief assistance was

caused not only by the debris, wood and sprawling bodies but

also by TNI (Indonesian military). The three villages had been

terrorised by TNI troops hunting after GAM members suspected

to have come down from the hills to save their families. In the

chaos of looking for missing family members and food shortage

that followed the tsunami, the villagers were checked one by

one to ensure that they were not GAM members. Women and men

in Seubun Ketapang village were asked to make a line and

questioned whether they were GAM members and about the

location of their GAM family members. This made many volunteers

and aid organisations providing relief supplies reluctant to work

in Seubun Ketapang, Lham Lhom or Lampuuk because they did

not want to have problems with the military. Moreover, the army

used the momentum to search for weapons in the areas around

the villages to replace those lost when the ammunition warehouse

at the TNI Company base in Lhok Nga was destroyed by the

tsunami.

After the tsunami, the military unofficially declared particular

regions as ‘black, red and grey’ zones. Black indicated areas of

armed conflict between the military and GAM; red - areas of

possible location of GAM forces; and grey zone was an area

relatively free from GAM. People were restricted to go to black

zones. Women of the Lampuuk village used to pick wild fruits,

vegetables and herbs in the nearby hills declared ‘black zone’

after the tsunami. On March 7, a few villagers were shot dead at

the foothill as suspected GAM fighters. The communities, who

lost their livelihood sources from the sea, were now denied access

to the forest – another livelihood source.

Most of the residential area and agricultural land were inundated

by water and mud resulting in a loss of food supplies either in

their farms or houses. The only hope was government or non-

governmental organisation’s assistance. The assistance finally got

through to the villages after 4-5 days.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in Aceh

Sri Lanka

The tsunami was most severely felt by the eastern coast of the

island, which is also the area which had already been devastated

by the armed conflict for at least fifteen years prior to the

tsunami. Thus, communities that had faced all forms of violence,

severe human rights abuses, impoverishment, loss of livelihood

and displacement in a systematic manner due to the conflict were

once more subjected to deprivation and to the destruction of

their communities, their lives and their livelihoods because of the

tsunami. In fact, some of them referred to this as the ‘second

tsunami’ while the conflict had been the first. The waves

destroyed an already weak infrastructure, and impoverished

already very poor communities. It created more widows in

communities that already had a majority of female-headed

households; it created more orphans in communities that already

had abnormal numbers of parentless children.

Tsunami Aftermath: Women’s Human Rights Violations in Sri

Lanka

Global Response

! An international women’s disaster response agency needs to be

created which would reach out to disaster hit areas and provide

advisory assistance for gender sensitive disaster management

to governments of the affected country and aid agencies

involved in relief and rehabilitation activities.

! Gender sensitive disaster management manuals need to be

translated into various languages and distributed to

governments.

! Officials of governments and aid agencies, including UN

officials, need to undergo gender sensitive disaster management

training.

! Gender sensitive disaster management policies should be

mainstreamed into international government and non-

government agencies involved in disaster management.

National Response

! In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, ‘gender focal

committees involving various stakeholders – government, aid

agencies, international and local NGOs - should be set up to

ensure women’s needs are met and women’s human rights are

protected.

! Collect gender disaggregated data as soon as possible after

the disaster so that necessary data is available in an accessible

and user friendly format. Gender disaggregated data is essential

to enable governments and aid agencies to formulate gender-

sensitive relief and reconstruction programmes and plans.

! Provide legal support to women in processing documentation such

as death certificates, land and other ownership disputes.

General Recommendations for Gender Sensitive Disaster

Management

References

Caught in the Storm: The Impact of Natural Disasters on Women, The

Global Fund for Women.

Gender Sensitive Guidelines on Implementing the Tsunami Housing Policy,

Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) Sri Lanka

Human Rights in the Post Tsunami Context, INFORM, Sri Lanka. Caught in

the Storm: The Impact of Natural Disasters on Women, The Global Fund

for Women

Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response,

Sphere Project, 2004

Earthquake Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in Pakistan,

Roots for Equity, 2006.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Dalit Women’s Human Rights in India,

Society for Rural Education and Development, 2006

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in Nanggroe Aceh

Darussalam, Solidaritas Perempuan, Indonesia, 2006.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in Sri Lanka,

INFORM, 2006.

Tsunami Aftermath: Violations of Women’s Human Rights in Thailand,

Sustainable Development Foundation, 2006.

Women’s Human Rights Concerns in Tsunami Affected Countries, March

2005, APWLD Report

Women and Media Collective Report, 2005, Sri Lanka

“The Guidelines for Gender Sensitive Disaster Management were initiated

at the Asian Women’s Consultation on Post Tsunami Challenges, which

convened 60 women activists and tsunami survivors from India, Indonesia,

Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand in Aceh, July, 2005.

APWLD is an independen

APWLD is an independent, non-government, non-profit

organisation committed to enabling women to use law as

an instrument of change to achieve equality, justice, peace

and development

Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)

189/3 Changklan Road

Amphoe Muang

Chiang Mai 50101

Thailand

Tel: (66) 53 284527, 284856

Fax: (66) 53 280847

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.apwld.org