Integrating the Issue of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Detention Monitoring 3. WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC RISKS IN PLACES OF DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY? The risk of SGBV in places of deprivation of liberty is high. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that they are closed facilities, operating far from the public eye, and in which detainees/prisoners have little or no control over their daily lives. As the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has pointed out, in places of detention, “[t]he likelihood of sexual violence is even greater when a broader pattern of negligence, lack of respect for human dignity and abuse is present, when authorities fail to provide a safe and decent detention environment or when they promote an approach to detainees that focuses on power and the use of force.”6 Places of deprivation of liberty can also be highly sexualized environments, due to the close confinement of large groups of people, often in extremely overcrowded conditions. Normal sexual activities are usually prohibited or strongly discouraged, and detainees/prisoners often lack regular meaningful activities. In such closed facilities, sex can be used as a means to assert power and authority over others, and to establish a position in the prison hierarchy. In men’s detention facilities, the culture of homophobia, misogyny and toxic forms of masculinity is pervasive and fuels SGBV. Victims may be unable to complain about instances or threats of SGBV. They may also feel that speaking out will put them in even more danger, or that it would be a waste of time. Places of deprivation of liberty can, therefore, become spaces in which perpetrators of SGBV act with total impunity. Staff are sometimes directly responsible for the abuse, but authorities are also often complicit, by turning a blind eye or by failing to respond appropriately.7 Many detainees/prisoners have histories of violence and social problems. Perpetrators of SGBV may find that it is easier to “get away with it” in closed facilities, while survivors of SGBV in the past may find that they are particularly at risk in detention. Staff may not have received adequate training to identify or deal with instances of abuse in closed facilities. Others may be perpetrators of SGBV and use their position of power to commit such abuse.8 6 ICRC, Sexual Violence in Detention, op. cit., note 1 7 ODIHR, Preventing and Addressing Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Places of Deprivation of Liberty , op. cit., note 1. 8 Ibid. 11