Refugee Women Refugees

In any refugee population, approximately 50 percent of the uprooted people are women and girls. Stripped of the protection of their homes, their government and often their family structure, females are often particularly vulnerable. They face the rigours of long journeys into exile, official harassment or indifference and frequent sexual abuse - even after reaching an apparent place of safety. Despite this little has been done by the international community to deal with them as women in a particular situation and with particular needs.

Refugee women flee various types of persecution, including female circumcision, morality codes, rape, and other forms of violence in search of protection of their most fundamental human rights. It is not

Over the years, this has had ramifications for status determination procedures as they are applied to refugee women, equal standards of treatment in the host country, and women's access to assistance and services. Further, the unique types of persecutions that women are subjected to and which may compel them to flee their countries of origin, are not enumerated as grounds for persecution in the international legal instruments that define refugees. The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees does not specifically recognise the special nature of problems faced by the women asylum seekers or refugee women. The term persecution as used in the refugee definition given in the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol does not directly refer to gender or sex as reasons for persecution that would qualify a person for refugee status. However, despite the absence of explicit recognition of gender- based persecution under the 1951 Refugee Convention it is acknowledged that persecution can be gendered and if it is linked to five grounds (race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group), refugee status can be

This requires adherence to various human rights treaties whereby states, in the exercise of their sovereignty, are free to adopt the interpretation that women asylum-seekers who face harsh or inhuman treatment may be considered as a ‘particular social group’ within the meaning of not only Article 1 A (2) of the Refugee convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol but also to other relevant international instruments. These relevant instruments are as follows:

• The Four Geneva conventions of 1949 and the Two Additional Protocols of 1977.

• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966.

• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966.

• The Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women 1979.

• The Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict 1974

• The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women 1993.

UNHCR Policy on Refugee Women

Recognising that there is a protection gap in the international refugee law, UNHCR has responded with series of gender related guidelines and Executive Committee Resolutions to address the