South Sudanese Refugee Survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Torture: Health and Justice Service responses in Northern Uganda
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This British Academy/Leverhulme-funded research investigated the health and justice service responses to the needs of South Sudanese refugees living in refugee settlements in Northern Uganda who had been subjected to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and torture. It involved the collection and thematic analysis of the narratives of 20 men and 41 women who were refugee survivors of SGBV and torture, including their experiences in South Sudan, their journeys to Uganda and experiences in refugee settlements, in particular their access to health and justice services. Thirty-seven key stakeholders including international, government, non-government organisations and civil society organisations were also interviewed regarding their experiences of providing health and justice services to refugees. All refugees had survived human rights abuses mainly carried out in South Sudan but some had also occurred on route to Uganda and within Uganda. Despite the significant impact of their experiences, the analysis indicated that there was limited service response in refugee settlements in Northern Uganda once the immediate humanitarian crisis ended. The thematic analysis indicated five main themes coming from the interviews. These included: the nature of refugee experiences of SGBV and torture, including domestic violence and child abduction and forced marriage; issues associated with service provision such as lack of adequate screening and under resourcing of health and justice services; a lack of gender sensitivity and specialist services, particularly for men; the sustained involvement of civil society organisations and local non-governmental organisations in providing counselling and offering emotional support and hope to survivors; and enhancing health and justice responses and services to improve refugee recovery, dignity and resilience. The authors recommend that integrated gendered and culturally sensitive service provision should be adopted, which brings together formal and informal health, justice services and survivor support programmes.
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Prior research has documented sexual and gender-based violence as a problem affecting South Sudanese refugees in Uganda.
“Studies have documented sexual and gender-based violence as an issue among South Sudanese refugees in Uganda (e.g.Adaku et al., 2016;Athumani, 2017;Liebling et al., 2020;Nagai et al., 2008), but no research has explored this issue in relation to Uganda's refugee policy.”
From Sexual and gender-based violence against South Sudanese refugees in Uganda: a mixed-methods study (2025) · cites this paper as Liebling et al., 2020
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Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006) · Qualitative Research in Psychology · doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa · Cited by 194,414 · see citing works
Adaku, A., Okello, J., Lowry, B., Kane, J. C., Alderman, S., Musisi, S., & Tol, W. A. (2016) · Conflict and Health · doi:10.1186/s13031-016-0085-6 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
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Sexual and gender-based violence against South Sudanese refugees in Uganda: a mixed-methods study
Michaelsen, S. (2025) · Université de Montréal · doi:10.71781/1596
- Authors
- Liebling, H., Barrett, H., & Artz, L.
- Affiliations
- Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry and Warwick Universities, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
- Coventry University (GB)
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- Corresponding author
- Liebling, Helen
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2020-03-05
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1685
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7084827
- OpenAlex
- W3009922722
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 7.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Pure (Coventry University) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Leverhulme Trust
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Security, and Conflict
- Social Sciences › Health › Migration, Racism, and Human Rights
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Migration, Health and Trauma
- Keywords
- South Sudanese refugees, sexual and gender-based violence, torture, refugee survivors, refugee health care, justice services, forced marriage, child abduction, domestic violence, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, resilience, survivor support
- MeSH terms
- Gender-Based Violence, Adult, Child, Female, Health Services Accessibility, Humans, Male, Refugees, Social Justice, Sudan, Torture, Uganda, Survivors, Cultural Competency
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