A/HRC/11/6 page 26 often linked with attempts to control economic resources such as oil, metal, diamonds, drugs or contested territorial boundaries.86 VAW is often one way to achieve this control, demonstrated in many of the recent armed conflicts. 79. Women and girls displaced by natural disasters have also been subject to rape, sexual abuse, early and forced marriage, and trafficking,87 with long-term impact on women’s rights and welfare in the post-crisis or post-conflict situation.88 The stigmatization, and sometimes even forced displacement, of women who have been raped for instance, often results in their impoverishment and in continued violence against them. 80. The failure to address women’s ES rights in post-conflict situations, contributes to women’s poverty and material insecurity and thus, their vulnerability to abuse, including trafficking.89 The invisibility of VAW during and after the conflict/disaster is over exacerbates gender inequalities and marginalizes women in reconstruction and State-building processes despite Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security in which the Council recognizes the right of women to participate in these processes.90 Research suggests that women can be empowered in post-crisis situations91 if endemic problems in society are addressed and the ES rights of citizens during the rebuilding of societies after crises are ensured in a non-discriminatory manner.92 86 El Jack, Amani, Gender and Armed Conflict: Overview Report, Bridge Development - Gender, Institute of Development Studies (2003), p. 8. 87 Felten-Biermann, Claudia, “Gender and natural disaster: Sexualized violence and the tsunami”, Development, Vol. 49, No. 3 (2006), pp. 82-86. 88 On the economic and social consequences of armed conflict for women, see report of the previous Special Rapporteur (E/CN.4/1998/54). 89 Chinkin, loc. cit. (note 25 above), p. 11. See also, Enarson, Elaine, Gender and Natural Disasters, ILO: Recovery and Reconstruction Department, September 2000, (http://www.unisdr. org/eng/library/Literature/7566.pdf). 90 Wilson, Jennifer, Phillips, Brenda D., and Neal, David M, “Domestic violence after disaster” in Enarson, E. and Morrow, B.H. (eds), The Gendered Terrain of Disaster: Through Women’s Eyes, Westport, C.T.: Greenwood, 1998, pp. 115-123. 91 Holt, Maria, “Palestinian women, violence, and the peace process”, in Development, Women, and War: Feminist Perspectives, Development in Practice, Oxfam, 2003, pp. 223-38. See the increases in women’s empowerment in post-genocide Rwanda on the website of PRO-FEMMES/TWESE HAMWE (www.profemme.org.rw). 92 Bernard, Cheryl, Jones, Seth G., Oliker, Olga, Quantic Thurston, Cathryn, Stearns Lawson, Brooke, Cordell, Kristen, Women and Nation-Building, Stanford: RAND, 2008.

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