The opening quotes of the report are heart wrenching:

It is not yet safe to be a woman here. It won't be safe until there is justice and until violence against women is taken seriously.

- - Chadian journalist interviewed in Abéché, Eastern Chad

I remember one woman asking me if there was anywhere she could go and feel safe. I didn't know what to answer because I don't think there is an answer.

- - Aid worker, interviewed in Abéché

The report goes on to detail many of the internal issues within the camp, the lack of safety when women leave the camp to look for necessities like firewood or straw, and how often bandits and other local criminals prey on women refugees.

And that's just the dangers outside of the camps.

Inside UN territory, the nightmare for many women continues:

Mariam, a 22-year-old mother of two was raped in Gaga Refugee Camp by a man working with an international organization operational in the camp. She has been a refugee in Chad for more than six years, since the beginning of the conflict in Darfur. For the last three years she has worked as a social worker for an international NGO in the camp. In that capacity, she worked in the camp with a Chadian man. It is this man who attacked her.

On 17 April 2009, Mariam and her Chadian co-worker went to visit a sick elderly woman in the camp. On their way, they passed close to Mariam's hut and the man asked if they could stop for a drink of water. They did. When Mariam brought the water to him, he grabbed her from the back. She shouted, but he then grabbed her by the throat, muffling her cries and making it hard for her to breathe. He then raped her. It was the middle of the day, and her husband and neighbours were not present. But then a neighbour came back to his hut while Mariam was still being raped. She saw him and shouted out. The man looked, saw what was happening and yelled at Mariam's aggressor, who then ran out of the hut and fled from the camp. He is reported to have fled to Abéché. Mariam went to the clinic inside Gaga camp. She informed her organization and her husband about what had occurred. The international NGO fired the man, who is rumoured to still be at large in Abéché.

It is not clear by the end of August 2009 if further legal action was taken against him. Mariam's husband filed a complaint with the security branch of the National Commission for Reception and Settlement of Refugees, Commission Nationale d'Accueil et de Réinsertion des Réfugiés,(CNAR). The complaint was reportedly forwarded to local Chadian authorities but neither Mariam nor her husband has been informed of any further investigation or proceedings at the end of May 2009. Mariam continued to work with the same organization. She told Amnesty International, however, that she felt increasingly distressed about what happened to her, and feels that others do not care much and are doing little to provide her with assistance or support.

In addition to sexual violence, there is also physical violence:

In June 2008, the president (representative) of the refugee committee at Farchana Camp ordered a number of refugees to beat a group of five girls who he accused of misbehaving. The girls were severely beaten and later received medical treatment in the camp clinic. A complaint was filed with local officials against the representative of the refugee committee. He was later charged with assault and convicted.

Girls have also reported being sexually propositioned by school teachers in the camps, as well as being forced into marriages by local custom or as "reparations" for rape.

The report provides recommendations for each player as to how the camps could improve, and provides a lengthy list for MINURCAT (the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad). Amnesty International suggests:

• Ensure MINURCAT includes gender advisors who can monitor the situation of women and girls, assist women's representatives in advocating for services to improve their safety, ensure that all MINURCAT staff are working to improve the protection of the human rights of women and girls and ensure improved training of MINURCAT and DIS staff involved in investigating crimes of sexual violence against women and girls.
• Ensure that any person reporting sexual violence has prompt access to medical care.
• Work with the Chadian government to set up an effective DIS vetting process and ensure
  that those reasonably suspected of crimes under Chadian and international human rights law
  are excluded from the DIS pending a prompt, effective, independent and impartial
  investigation and prosecution process.
• Ensure appropriate training of DIS officers with respect to the establishment of a
  database to record crimes, including sexual and gender-based violence, and the conduct of
  investigations of alleged human rights violations.
• Ensure that effective forensic investigation techniques, which respect World Health
  Organization guidelines for medico-legal care of victims of sexual violence, are available for
  use in investigations of sexual assault.
• Ensure that the security of refugees both inside and outside refugee camps in eastern
  Chad is effectively guaranteed by both MINURCAT military forces and the DIS, by means of regular patrols around all 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad and the provision of escorts for women and girls at their request when they venture outside refugee camps.
• Work with the UNHCR, other UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations operational in and around refugee camps, and refugee women and girls themselves, to develop comprehensive strategies to address the causes and circumstances of sexual violence, including factors that compel women and girls to travel outside refugee camps.
• Insist that Chadian authorities bring to justice suspected perpetrators of rape and other violence against refugee women and girls and ensure that survivors have adequate support, protection and full reparations.
• Monitor reports of rape and other violence against refugee women and girls which are lodged with the Chadian authorities and follow-up with authorities ihttp://publish.jezebel.com/ged/newn order to ensure that all possible action is taken to investigate these crimes.

However, as if proving that the hardest part of fighting a rape culture (in any part of the globe) are entrenched attitudes, the spokesperson of MINURCAT, Michel Bonnardeaux responded to Reuters by explaining that things aren't as bad as they seem:

"Given what they have, they do a very good job," he said.

"I think it (the report) is a little hasty and based in a fairly small sample and a short visit. I would invite the researchers to come back and have some better statistics to get a better picture ... The situation is certainly better that it was than a year ago."

Is that so? Now, admittedly, I haven't come across a whole lot of news about conditions in the camps. However, one image that has stuck with me for the last year is this picture from Hungry Planet: What the World Eats which shows the amount of food this refugee family in a camp in Chad survives on for one week:

Now, I suppose we could say they have food, which is important. But at the same time, that small amount doesn't really seem like enough. I feel the same way about the remarks in regard to efforts regarding sexual violence. The camp is better than what so many people fled from, but it is still a difficult existence. And we need to start taking these issues seriously, instead of just pointing to the worst case scenario as a defense.

Luckily, someone with sway and power is taking this issue very seriously - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. In addition to making women's rights a cornerstone of her platform, she has set her sights on eliminating rape as a tool of war:

Secretary Clinton, who has committed to making women's issues a "centerpiece" of her work as the Obama administration's chief diplomat, will chair a session of the UN Security Council on women, peace, and security. At the session Wednesday, she'll promote a US-sponsored resolution that seeks to expand and strengthen a measure approved last year, which condemns the use of rape in conflict and characterizes it as a threat to peace and security.
Clinton was moved to seek additional action against the growing use of rape as a result of her visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August. She met with some of the estimated 200,000 victims of sexual violence in the country's war-torn eastern region.

"Meeting with survivors of rape, which is now used increasingly as a tool of war, was shattering," Clinton told a New York audience in the run-up to last week's UN General Assembly meeting. Addressing a separate gathering of female heads of state and foreign ministers, she said, "There are people who say, 'Well, women's issues is an important issue, but it doesn't rank up there with the Middle East or Iran's nuclear threat or Afghanistan and Pakistan.' I couldn't disagree more."

The U.N. is also scheduled to create a coordinator position to help end systemic rape and violence against women in times of war. For the millions of women around the globe impacted by this issue, it isn't a moment too soon.

"No Place For Us Here: Violence Against Refugee Women In Eastern Chad" [Amnesty International]
Mandate [MINURCAT]
Darfur Refugees Raped In Chad Camps: Amnesty [Reuters]
Hungry Planet: What The World Eats [Amazon]
Clinton To Chair Security Council Session On Sexual Violence [Christian Science Monitor]
U.N. To Adopt Post For Women Caught In War [UPI]

Earlier: Hillary Clinton Tackles Economics, Terrorism, Microlending In NY Times Profile

ANA MARIE: I AM AWAKE!

MEGAN: Hooray! I am too. Are you appropriately grumpy about it?

ANA MARIE: Could be worse. We could be talking about BLOGGING AND POLITICS.

MEGAN: Like, oh my God, Ana, when are bloggers going to get ethics like real journalists?

ANA MARIE: As soon as we gain enough power to mislead a country into a stupid war.
The best thing about this election so far, I have to say, is not so much that the press has goaded itself into becoming more watchdog-y, but that they're doing the watchdogging with such petulant snarkiness. Almost like bloggers. From the NYT's editorial board blog yesterday:

What’s Spanish for ‘Lies’?
By The Editorial Board

It's "mentiras," I think, but I'm sure that's not the point!

MEGAN: It is way more than I thought, since I was too busy laughing at the thought of the New York Times editorial board getting so upset that John McCain was misleading voters. I guess it's a fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and we'll publish a number of glowing pieces about how Saddam has nukes kind of thing.

ANA MARIE: Almost like he was exaggerating the threats posed by Iraq or something!
Fool me three times and we'll write a snarky blog post! THAT WILL SHOW HIM.

MEGAN: What if all the newspapers became actually snarky? Like, what if they decided that the only way to compete with new media was to out-blog us? Would The Onion have to become an outlet of serious journalism? Would democracy as we know it die? (You did see that article about how cynicism is killing democracy...)

ANA MARIE: WHAT IF NICK DENTON RAN THE NYT? I think we would develop a shortage of first-hand journalism. But EVERYONE would know who Julia Allison is.

MEGAN: You don't need to leave your desk to know stuff, obviously! Wait, are there people who don't know about Julia Allison yet? I thought she was part of the citizenship exam by now.

ANA MARIE: She's actually being launched into space soon. So that she's, like, one of the first things aliens learn about us. You know: Beethoven, math... Julia Allison.

MEGAN: They'll like her better than math, that's for sure. Gawker certainly does.

ANA MARIE: There's some kind of segue between Julia and this about Tucker Bounds, but I'm still coffee-less, so I'll let you make it. They really need to stop sending the twelve-year-old intern out to the morning shows. Or cable shows, I mean. I think I was thinking "morning show" because he's getting his ass kicked, in all cases, by heavily rougued faux-next-girls! GIRLS!

MEGAN: Actually, the man just needs to, like, fucking prepare before he goes. Your candidate is out lying like he's Dick Cheney or something, you gotta put your big boy panties on just like Ari Fleischer did and take it. I think the real problem is that Tucker Bounds likes getting spanked by hot women.

ANA MARIE: YOU CAN TOTALLY TELL. He totally knows the shit the campaign is trying to pull and just enjoys being called on it. "TELL ME AGAIN HOW WE LIE, CAMPBELL. MAKE IT HURT."

MEGAN: "I know I've been naughty, Megyn. Tell me I've been naughty."

ANA MARIE: Oh, breaking!

Senator McCain, on a round of seven morning shows, says on CNBC’s Squawk Box that he favors a 9/11-commission-style body to look into the Wall Street meltdown: “Everybody’s at fault here – the regulatory agencies, who were clearly asleep at the stick … That’s why I think maybe we ought to have a 9/11 commission type thing, because this crisis is very serious and … certainly a threat to our economy. … I understand the economy. I was chairman of the Commerce Committee that oversights every part of our economy. I have a far, far longer record of addressing these issue than my opponent does. And I certainly don’t think we should raise taxes in these difficult times.”

MEGAN: Is oversight a verb?

ANA MARIE: Look, he was a POW, ok? He is allowed to verb anything.

MEGAN: Wait, John McCain was tortured? I didn't know that.

ANA MARIE: Do you think somewhere lying around the WH is a memo entitled, "Wall Street Determined to Strike Inside the US"?

MEGAN: So, by the way, the 9/11 Commission report only took a year to commission and two to write, which means McCain's financial crisis commission will issue its report on the current financial crisis in 2011, which is 2 years before McCain wants to start pulling troops out of Iraq but possibly a little late to have any effect on the deepening financial crisis. But, read his lips: No New Taxes.

ANA MARIE: Speaking of which, I actually wrote someone on the McCain campaign yesterday to ask if the candidate had finished Alan Greenspan's book by now.

MEGAN: And did you get a response that wasn't vetted 15 ways from Sunday?

ANA MARIE: Er, yes.

MEGAN: I wonder if Steve Schmidt has taken away everyone's BlackBerries.

ANA MARIE: Maybe he's just installed some kind of filter. The answer I got was, basically, "Fuck off." It was a little nicer than that.

MEGAN: I think, then, that Steve Schmidt is controlling everyone's BlackBerries.

ANA MARIE: No, Steve would have actually written "Fuck off." He's from Jersey, you know, where that is a term of endearment.

MEGAN: Maybe that's the filter! He types "fuck off" and a computer somewhere translates it into something polite. I could totally use one of those, if they made it into one of those little boxes you use to talk after throat cancer surgery.

ANA MARIE: Speaking of cancer (I'm getting better at segues!): Bristol Palin's tanning bed.

MEGAN: I was just thinking, actually, that Todd looks equally suspiciously tan for the start of winter. But he works outside, if he wanted to submit to a tan line inspection to prove it's not from the bed, I'm happy to judge.

ANA MARIE: Wait, isn't he part Eskimo? Does that make your question racist?

MEGAN: He's like an eighth or something? I have been too busy noticing that he's cute and kind of silent which is how I too prefer the cute men.

ANA MARIE: And I think he's also controlling and a little insane. He's perfect for you!

MEGAN: Insane, definitely! I try to only date the mentally ill, it makes it so much easier to blame the break-ups on them. Controlling, well, that shit just annoys me in about 2 seconds. I dumped a guy once for questioning who I was talking to on the telephone.

ANA MARIE: So you probably wouldn't let him, say, write your state budget, huh?

MEGAN: I probably wouldn't let him know the balance in our joint checking account.

ANA MARIE: So here's a question: What are the gender politics of Todd being so up in his wife's business, as it were?

MEGAN: Well, metaphorically speaking, I am all for Todd being all up in his wife's business.

ANA MARIE: I am actually quite sure that they have hot Christian sex all the time.

MEGAN: But, other than that, it's a little weird on a state level. Especially because state budgets are really complex and stuff, and I don't recall Todd having a degree in public management or accounting. Or anything, really.

ANA MARIE: So when HRC got all up in Bill's (completely literal) business, that was ok... Because she was sharing expertise.

MEGAN: Well, only it wasn't, right? Because then she was a nagging, first-wifely harpy. At least that was the Republican talking point...

ANA MARIE: It was. And now the Dem talking point looks like it might be, "Todd is pulling all the strings, a bullying, first-dudely Machiavelli." From my friend Mike's admittedly amusing Salon piece, out last night:

"No one has accused Todd Palin of interfering in state business for his own personal benefit — instead, the situation has remained somewhat inscrutable, if not odd. According to local politicos and observers, he lurks around the capitol if he doesn't have anything better to do, which, since he works seasonal jobs in oil and fishing, is fairly often."

MEGAN: I love how he's "lurking." And that with 4 and now 5 kids at home, he doesn't have anything better to do.

ANA MARIE: But here's the thing: switch the genders — our standard mode of cultural critique this year, practically so mandatory that I'm thinking Chris and I will just go as each other for Halloween — and what do you think? "Sarah Palin, with 5 kids at home, has no right lurking around her husband's place of work like she has any idea what's going on."

MEGAN: I'm of two minds, as I am with everything else. On the one hand, free advice is good. Free decision-making, not so good.

ANA MARIE: I agree. It's just really awesome to see Rs having to grapple with this. I wrote a piece a couple of months ago about how, along with Woodstock and the moon landing, another major event McCain missed while in prison (yes, he was in a Vietnamese prison! true story!) was the women's movement, which is obviously where a lot of these questions were first framed on a national level. He's totally having to make up for lost time, in a way, but without any of the intellectual or historical work that went into the first round of discussions.

MEGAN: I think a lot of her politicians missed the women's movement in some pretty significant ways.

ANA MARIE: They weren't even really the "first" of course.
Well, yes. But do you get what I mean about how the R's new-found feminism is missing a lot of the context and thoughtfulness that, well, makes it a real argument rather than a talking point?

MEGAN: Well, I think the Republican party's newfound "feminism" is born of, oh, God, too early, what's the word that means you're taking advantage of the situation? Anyway, I think the Republican party hasn't found feminism.

ANA MARIE: You're right. Or, rather, they've just found the word "sexism."

MEGAN: They've found the power of the word sexism to attract a certain class of voters.

ANA MARIE: Well, weirdly, it's not! I mean, HRC supporters ARE NOT flocking to Palin

MEGAN: And they've discovered the sheer joy of Schadenfreude, watching all of this. No, they're not flocking if they are committed Dems, but I think plenty of Hillary supporters weren't committed Dems.

ANA MARIE: The sexism charge is mainly working as a proxy for the standard "media bias" charge. Which is as old as the hills, though not as old as John McCain.

MEGAN: I think the sexism charge is connecting hard with Republican women, bringing up old grievances with feminists and the feminist movement connected to their life choices. The idea that feminists disrespect women who stay home with the kids or are pro-life, those feelings.

ANA MARIE: So, really, they're just co-opting the words. We're not actually having a productive discussion.

MEGAN: It's politics! Productive discussions aren't allowed.

ANA MARIE: Which makes it a perfect time to segue back into Julia Allison!

MEGAN: Um, she called herself a journalist.

ANA MARIE: But, and this is important:

"I don't want people to think that I think I'm Woodward and Bernstein."

Which sort of makes me think she's actually Sarah Palin.

MEGAN: I believe journalism just died. Actually, I think she slunk into its hospital room, climbed on it's bed, slapped it around, smothered it with a pillow and then stabbed it 39 times for emphasis.

ANA MARIE: I was just thinking: I think Julia Allison had sex with journalism, THEN killed it. It's the best end journalism can hope for. It would be much worse to have sex with Woodward and Bernstein before dying.