Reporting Gender Based Violence

This Inter Press Service (IPS) Africa handbook brings together the available expertise and data based on the growing body of knowledge worldwide to help us understand why gender based violence takes place and its profound and far reaching consequences on women, families and societies.

The handbook is divided into twelve sections, specifically:

1. Custom, tradition and religion
2. Domestic violence
3. Sexual gender based violence
4. Femicide
5. Sex work and trafficking
6. Sexual harassment
7. Sexual gender based violence in armed conflict
8. HIV and AIDS
9. Child abuse
10. The role of men in combating violence against women
11. The criminal justice system
12. The cost of gender based violence

Each section includes an overview of the issue, some facts and statistics and a sample feature to provide an example of best practices and/or what to consider when writing about gender based violence. There are discussion questions for facilitators using this handbook in training. Additionally, there is a brief section that looks at ways of coping with the trauma of reporting on GBV and, finally, a glossary of terms used throughout the handbook.

To guide users of this handbook, each section provides information on some of the websites that deal with gender based violence. Users – including training facilitators and reporters - are advised to supplement these tools with additional local sources.