VSGD
The Victim Support, Gender and Diversity is one of the five (5) thematic departments of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission charged with the responsibility under section 9 of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission(NPRC) Act (Chapter 10:32) to ensure the following:
- The Commission shall establish a Gender Unit to provide for –
- The development of specific guidelines and rules on how the Commission will incorporate gender into its work;
- The development of strategies to encourage the participation of women, girls and other marginalized groups in the work of the Commission;
- Gender equity in the structure of the Commission, its secretariat and any other committees that the Commission may set up;
- Mainstreaming of gender imperative into every aspect of the Commission’s work;
- Ensuring that all organs of the Commission shall consider and address the gender implications of their activities;
- Developing protocols for statement taking, collection and analysis of gender and sex-disaggregated data, the conduct of interviews and hearings and other operational matters to ensure that gender concerns are fully addressed;
- Monitoring gender related practices within the Commission and advice on best practice and principles;
- Investigating the use of sexual crimes as a weapon during and after conflicts;
- Reaching out to and identifying victims of gender based violations and provide such victims an opportunity, in private or public, to relate their own accounts of the violations or harm they have suffered and to set out their needs;
- Holding specific public or private hearings on the gendered nature and context of violence and marginalization; and investigate the causes of such violence and marginalization:
- Assessing the needs of victims of gender-based violations and marginalization and make recommendations which may include urgent interim measures, as to the appropriate measures required to redress such violations and marginalization, including the policy which should be followed or measures which should be taken to restore the human and civil dignity of such victims
The Victim Support, Gender and Diversity particularly has a mandate to assist all victims of diverse groups, traditions, cultures and languages with an emphasis to target all vulnerable victims of conflict especially women, young girls and persons with disabilities. The VSGD has a further mandate to ensure that victims are handled in a proper manner as prescribed under section 10 of the NPRC Regulations SI 90 of 2018.