Canning, V (2011) Transcending conflict : exploring sexual violence support for women seeking asylum in Merseyside. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

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Abstract

Rape and sexual violence have long been acknowledged in feminist literature as a silenced social problem which requires long term strategies for prevention, prosecution and support. Social sciences more generally, however, have had a more ambivalent relationship with the theoretical and conceptual development of research in this area. Outside of feminist sociology and criminology there has been little engagement, yet sexual violence remains a prevalent social problem in all regions of the globe. The latter half of the twentieth century saw quick and significant changes to the structures of states as the result of localised and international conflicts, many of which continue or are experiencing post-conflict transformation that has resulted in global growths in refugee populations as a result of forced migration. Alongside this has been an increasing globalisation of rights based approaches related to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the Geneva Convention of 1951 and the development of United Nations Resolutions and the establishment of the International Criminal Courts. Focussing on Merseyside as a case study, a main area of dispersal in the UK, this thesis critically examines domestic responses to women's asylum applications and support for women survivors of conflict related sexual violence. Using qualitative activist methodologies from a feminist standpoint perspective, it explores support available through interviews with local governmental and non-governmental organisations working within sexual violence support, asylum, and/or women's organisations before applying a structural analysis of long term impacts of sexual violence through an oral history with Hawwi, an Ethiopian rape survivor and asylum seeker in . . Merseyside. It concludes that, despite international developments, women's rights continue to lie marginalised in these arenas within and outside of academia. As such, important gaps in response exist with regard to sexual violence in conflict, but also in Merseyside. It concludes that, like rights based developments, considerations for applications continue to overlook the gendered experience of conflict, particularly with regard to the widespread perpetration of sexual violence. As such, limited resources for support exist for women survivors in Merseyside which can have detrimental effects on women's emotional, psychological and physical health as well as having wider social impacts beyond the individual.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
Divisions:	Humanities & Social Science
Date Deposited:	31 Mar 2017 10:09
Last Modified:	03 Sep 2021 23:31
DOI or ID number:	10.24377/LJMU.t.00006154
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/6154

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