By Marie-Celine Schulte, et al.

  Gender-based Violence (GBV) persists as an entrenched, yet preventable, pattern of systemic human rights violations and a global public health pandemic. GBV includes not only sexual violence but also physical, psychological, and economic violence. GBV can be technology enabled and politically motivated. Multiple forms often co-occur on a continuum up to lethal violence. GBV thrives in contexts of social, economic, legal, and political gender inequality. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the COVID 19 pandemic, economic crisis, democratic backsliding, labor and sex trafficking, corruption, gangs, armed groups, organized crime networks, armed conflict, and environmental disasters exacerbate these conditions. Using a political economy analytical approach, the GBV Impunity Regional Study (2021–2023) investigates the social, economic, legal, and political barriers to, and survivor-centered1 recommendations for, increasing GBV accountability in LAC. Examining eight countries, the study investigates a main research question

  This report focuses on case studies in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico that investigate factors driving GBV impunity and solutions to address it. The report synthesizes findings and recommendations across these four case studies based on qualitative, in-depth individual interviews with 106 GBV survivors,2 as well as government institutional and civil society organization (CSO) staff who provide direct services to survivors. Country case studies explore multiple forms of GBV. They pay special attention to GBV perpetrated against underserved groups, such as indigenous women, Afro-descendent women, transgender women, and gay men. In line with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) definition, this study defines GBV as encompassing any harmful act or threat against an individual or group based on biological sex, gender, gender orientation or expression, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, and/or lack of adherence to socially accepted conceptualizations of femininity and masculinity.

New York: USAID, 2023. 50p.