Refugee Women

Issued: 25 April 2002

Refugee Women

I. Introduction

1. Over the past ten years, UNHCR and its partners have made concerted efforts to address the protection concerns of refugee women, representing 51 percent1 of persons of concern to UNHCR.
Yet refugee women continue to be disproportionately affected by physical and sexual violence and abuse, have unequal access to asylum procedures and humanitarian assistance and often do not receive individual identity documents. International laws,2 standards and policies on this issue abound: the problem is that they are inadequately implemented.

2. This paper analyses the five most salient and sometimes inter-related protection concerns facing refugee women today:
safety and security; equal access to humanitarian assistance; registration and documentation; gender-sensitive application of refugee law and procedures; and
trafficking in women and girls.

After briefly discussing the problems and their underlying causes, the paper proposes concrete recommendations for action. The recommendations are drawn from international human rights law. Executive Committee Conclusions, guidelines and policies, and build on a series of meetings held over the last two years within and outside the Global Consultations process.3 In order to facilitate discussion and follow-up, the proposed core action identified under each of the five subject headings is framed in boxes in the text of this paper.

3. Underlying these recommendations is the principle that refugee women must be able to participate as equals in the decision-making bodies and processes that affect their lives, from camp committees to conflict resolution.4 Since women's participation in leadership roles may be rare in some social systems, it is equally important to ensure that men are involved in all attempts to achieve a more equal gender balance. Gender equality mainstreaming in projects and programmes is crucial to ensuring that activities benefit both women and men. Clearly, the protection of refugee women requires a two-pronged approach: gender equality mainstreaming and targeted, specific action.

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