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Library: Protect Our Defenders: Military Sexual Assault & Rape Facts, Policies, Legislation & News

Category: Sexual Harassment/Assault/Trauma

Protect Our Defenders (POD), a non-profit human rights organization, advocates on behalf of survivors of military sexual assault and rape.  They intend to impact enduring change within the military organization and culture through reform of military training, investigation, adjudication, and veteran service systems. 

They offer legal assistance referral to survivors as well as comprehensive online information resources including facts, policies, legislation, and news about military sexual assault and rape.

POD states its work is:

"Our effort is directly informed by our work with victims, survivors, their families and retired military.

We research and expose dysfunction in the military training, investigation, adjudication and veterans service systems related to rape, sexual assault and harassment.

We educate the public and policy makers on the problems related to these issues along with potential solutions. Sexual violence in the military is often not adequately investigated or prosecuted and victims are often blamed, pushed out of the service and denied benefits.

We amplify survivors' voices, enabling them to share their stories with the American people, elected representatives and military leadership.

We help survivors find appropriate services and support initiatives to improve victim and survivor care through our survivor support network, forums and e-library.

We provide opportunities for these individuals, their families and advocates to organize and support each other through community building projects and events. We mentor and provide small grants to enhance these efforts.

And finally – we support policy initiatives to fundamentally reform how the Department of Defense deals with sexual harassment, rape and sexual assault."

External Website:
Protect Our Defenders