Clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence survivors

Abstract

This document is an update of, and replaces, Clinical management of rape survivors: developing protocols for use with refugees and internally displaced persons, which was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and published in 2004.1 Over the last 15 years, evidence and learning around how to respond to the health needs of survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) in humanitarian settings has grown considerably. This update to the 2004 publication aims to bring this guidance into alignment with other more recent WHO guidelines on providing clinical care to survivors of rape, and to include additional information on responding to the needs of survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). It also includes a new section on addressing the mental health needs of survivors of GBV. Claudia García-Moreno, Elisabeth Roesch and Megin Reijnders at WHO led the preparation of this guide and oversaw the development of the final text. Nadine Cornier at UNFPA and Ann Burton at UNHCR also contributed to the development of the final text and collected input from colleagues in the field. Catrin Schulte-Hillen at UNHCR reviewed the final text. Robyn Yaker and Inka Weissbecker provided valuable input and developed early drafts of sections of the guide.