WHAT IS THE HUMANITARIAN NEED?

Every year, tens of thousands of adults and children experience sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in conflict zones worldwide. It is used to intimidate populations, control civilians, accelerate forced displacement, aid “ethnic cleansing,” and disrupt community norms.

SGBV constitutes an ongoing humanitarian crisis and serves to further isolate already marginalized populations. Too often, survivors of SGBV are unable to access justice because of lack of evidence – perpetuating a culture of impunity for crimes of sexual violence.

WHAT IS THE INNOVATIVE SOLUTION?

PHR seeks to help survivors of SGBV access justice and hold perpetrators accountable for these crimes.

By bolstering local capacity to forensically document and use evidence of SGBV, and therefore strengthening cases and accountability processes, PHR aims to end impunity for SGBV crimes.

To support this effort, the team developed MediCapt in collaboration with local clinicians and hospital partners. MediCapt is a mobile application that converts a standardized medical intake form for forensic documentation of SGBV to a digital platform, and combines it with a secure mobile camera to facilitate forensic photography.

It also enables clinicians to securely transmit data to police, lawyers, and judges involved in prosecuting SGBV crimes, with the goal of improving access to justice for survivors.

WHAT ARE THE EXPECTED OUTCOMES?

PHR plans to work with partners to scale the use of MediCapt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Central African Republic, and beyond.

It will publish findings throughout the Journey to Scale process to share lessons learned with the broader humanitarian and human rights communities. All MediCapt support materials will be open source.