Refugees are, by definition, vulnerable. Refugee women and girls are doubly vulnerable. They are in special danger from the time they are forced to leave their homes, during flight, and in camps and other places of asylum. At risk not only of actual or potential human rights abuses, conflicts and other acts of aggression, they are also subject to physical and sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as sexual discrimination in the delivery of goods and services. Abusers may be military personnel from the host country and resistance forces, as well as male refugees. Women and adolescent girls whose husbands or fathers are dead or missing are particularly vulnerable.
Assistance organisations have always recognised that refugees need protection against forcible repatriation, armed attacks or unjustified and unduly prolonged detention. They have always made the rapid provision of food, shelter, clothing and health care a priority. However, it is only in the last ten years that the special needs of refugee women have been widely recognised and, under pressure from refugee and nongovernmental advocates, steps taken at the international level to address these needs.
'Refugee women must be part of the process of analysing their own problems, identifying the solutions, and implementing the remedies', says Julia Taft of InterAction. 'Without their full participation, they cannot adequately be protected, nor can satisfactory solutions be found for their problems and those of the refugee community.'
However, the reality often paints a different picture.
Matters of daytoday survival put refugee women at risk
Refugee women are often put in particular danger by the very design of refugee camps. Sometimes, for example, unaccompanied women and girls live in communal housing that provides no privacy. Basic services and facilities such as latrines and water collection points are frequently located at an unsafe distance from where refugee women are housed, while poorlylit camps allow attacks to take place with relative impunity. Landmines are sometimes to be found on the perimeters of camps, even when refugees, usually women, must go beyond those borders to obtain firewood or other items.
Around the refugee camps in Tanzania, hundreds of refugees walk the hills, carrying wood on their heads and in their arms. Most of them are women and children. As the area surrounding the camps becomes stripped of trees, the refugees must travel further and further from the camp sites. And as they walk greater distances, women and girls are being raped and attacked.
Even the way in which basic assistance food, shelter, education, income is provided can make refugee women vulnerable. 'Mothers literally worked themselves to death trying to care for their families', says Barbara Smith, Director of Public and Mental Health at the International Rescue Committee, who visited Kibumba refugee camp near Goma, Zaire, in July 1994. Only those people who could endure walking long distances (up to 17 miles without food, water or even shoes) and waiting for hours (including standing in line overnight) for food, water and shelter materials survived. 'Frequently there were fist fights and riots with machetes at the distribution points', continues Smith. 'People who could not fight or who could not endure the arduous physical tasks required for survival had no recourse but to find a spot to lie down and, usually, to die. Young, healthy members of the Rwandan military invariably were the winners when it came to getting food and water.' Decisions about food distribution are generally made by international organisations in consultation with male leaders of the refugee sites. Yet these men may have little understanding of the needs and circumstances of those who cook the food or feed their families that is, the women. As a result, the food distribution procedures and contents may be inappropriate. For instance, beans might be distributed, which must be soaked overnight and cooked for three hours, when there is not enough firewood for fuel or even enough water to drink.
In some circumstances, food distributed through male networks is diverted to resistance forces or sold on the black market, with women and children suffering as a result. In other situations, food is used as a weapon by blocking distribution to civilian populations. In still other cases, male distributors of food and other items require sexual favours in exchange, or women are forced into prostitution or other exploitative activities to earn income to buy food on the black market. When women oversee the distribution of assistance items, these types of incidents occur far less frequently. For example, a UNHCR report notes that in one camp in Malawi many women complained they were being deprived of rations and were under pressure to give sexual favours or money in exchange for food. When more women were employed at the point of distribution, such abuses were greatly reduced.[1]
Often in refugee settings, women's specific health care needs are overlooked, including even the most basic requirements. According to a UNHCR brochure: 'A quarter of some refugee women's lives are wasted because they are denied an item as essential as cloth for use as sanitary napkins. That oversight can force women to spend one week of each month in their shelters, unable to take their children to the clinic or supplementary feeding centres, to gather firewood or perform other necessary chores.' Where cultural roles demand that women alone take responsibility for these chores, the impact of confining a woman to her home for one week each month has severe consequences for her entire family.
Reproductive health care services and mental health counselling are also severely lacking in most refugee settings. The shortage of female health workers only exacerbates the situation (especially in situations where women may be cared for only by male family members or by other women).
Another fundamental need of many refugee women, particularly heads of households, is sufficient income to support their families. Although relief agencies supply basic needs, refugees need money to supplement what is provided. Access to skills training and incomegeneration programmes are especially important for women and the extent to which refugee women are potential earners has often been underestimated. If refugee women do not have sufficient income, they may be forced to turn to prostitution and are more vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
UNHCR and NGOs have implemented many programmes to help women's incomegenerating activities but a number of problems have limited the success of these attempts. Generally, these programmes target marginal economic activities, such as handicrafts, for which there is often not a sustainable market. For the most part, women have not been involved in some of the larger sustainable projects that focus on reforestation, infrastructure development or agricultural activities. In many of the cultures from which refugee women come, women are traditionally involved in these activities but relief workers' biases about women's traditional roles may constrain choices. Women should not be thought of solely as the beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance programmes. They must also fully participate in their design and implementation.
UNHCR guidelines provide link between assistance and protection
For most of the history of refugee relief and in many cases still assistance has been the primary concern during an emergency. Intergovernmental and nongovernmental agencies have traditionally concentrated on the provision of food, shelter, clothing and health care, with little or no concern for protection. The fact that, in the process, certain groups have been made vulnerable to abuse or neglect was, for a long time, ignored. Refugees are legally protected by a series of international agreements, including the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (July 1951) and its 1967 Protocol, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1966 Human Rights Covenants and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. In addition to international law, the national law of the country of asylum governs the protection of refugee women. The physical protection of refugees, however, was not covered by international agreements.
In the mid 1980s, realising that the organised participation of refugee women in protection and assistance activities would bring important benefits to the women, their families and the refugee community as a whole, some refugee advocates began to lobby for international action on the needs of refugee women. Following the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985, the NGO International Working Group on Refugee Women was formed. The Genevabased Working Group was among the first organisations to point out the problems and protection needs of refugee women. 'Violence against refugee women had to be taken seriously', says Elizabeth Ferris, Convenor of the Working Group from 1985 to 1989. 'There needed to be a move from legal to physical protection. While there are still some UNHCR staff who do not see rape as a protection issue, over the past ten years there has been a mindshift in UNHCR. The Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women reflect this.'
The Working Group lobbied for the appointment of a Senior Coordinator for Refugee Women at UNHCR and the creation of the position in 1989 was a major step forward for the protection of refugee women. Ann HowarthWiles, who has filled the post since it was created, was instrumental in the development of the 1990 Policy on Refugee Women and the 1991 Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women.
The Guidelines provide information on practical ways to implement the recommendations in the Policy. Written after consultation with UNHCR field workers, government agencies, nongovernmental organisations and refugee women, the Guidelines state that: 'Protection cannot be seen in isolation from the mechanisms that are established to assist refugees. From the initial decisions that are made on camp design and layout to the longerterm programmes to assist refugees in finding durable solutions, the choices made in the assistance sectors have profound effects on the protection of refugee women. UNHCR has the responsibility, as part of its protection function, to ensure the nondiscriminatory access of all refugees to its assistance.' (UNHCR Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women, 1991:47, para 77)
As well as laying out the protection needs of refugee women, the Guidelines serve the operational purpose of helping field staff identify the specific protection issues facing women so that programmes can reflect their needs and concerns. The Guidelines contain an assessment of the protection problems faced by refugee women and propose solutions. They give concrete recommendations on how to involve refugee women in decisions affecting their security and how to identify particularly risky situations. The Guidelines suggest mechanisms to improve the reporting of physical and sexual protection problems and programmes for improving protection. They propose improvements in camp design and implementation of assistance programmes to ensure greater safety. Much of what the Guidelines contain is simply common sense, such as the recommendation to 'assess and make changes needed in the physical design and location of refugee camps to promote greater physical security. Special measures that may need to be implemented include security patrols; special accommodation if needed for single women, women heads of households and unaccompanied girls; and improved lighting.' (UNHCR Guidelines, 1991:33, para 45)
Implementing organisations fail to follow guidelines
The Guidelines are widely seen as a step in the right direction. However, the success of the Guidelines will only be illustrated when they move from paper to practice. Often in a refugee emergency, when most people are concentrating on the provision of food, shelter, clothing and health care, the Guidelines are forgotten. In addition, many UNHCR staff members have little or no knowledge of the policy and a very limited or distorted understanding of its implications for their work. Some people question the commitment of UNHCR senior management to the policy and feel that the Guidelines have not yet become an integral feature of the organisation's structures, procedures and activities. Ann HowarthWiles believes that UNHCR and governments should make implementation of the Guidelines part of their contracts with implementing agencies and that NGOs have a special responsibility to report on how they are ensuring the physical protection of women. She recognises that the Guidelines will only be implemented if people are held accountable, which is currently not the case.
The lack of human and financial resources only compounds the problem. While the number of refugees continues to grow, UNHCR's budget for training has been reduced. Many advocates for refugee women are strong proponents of the PeopleOriented Planning (POP) programme as a training tool to be used in conjunction with the Guidelines. POP encourages field staff to know the demographic composition, socioeconomic structure and culture of a refugee population, so that appropriate and effective programmes can be established for all refugees, particularly women. It emphasises the importance of establishing direct contact with refugees and encourages the UNHCR and NGO agencies to maximise the participation of women in the administration of camps and the development of assistance programmes.
'Nongovernmental organisations have to be more proactive in PeopleOriented Planning and train more trainers', says HowarthWiles. 'Also, NGOs should monitor reports on implementation of the Guidelines and notify UNHCR when they are not being implemented. A great deal is in the hands of NGOs.' When agency staff do try to implement the Guidelines, there is sometimes initial hesitation on the part of the refugees. However, with encouragement, women can be brought into leadership roles and encouraged to be decision makers.
Even in countries where the cultural dominance of men is strongly entrenched, the organisation of women's groups has proved to be an effective means of improving the protection and assistance available to them. In one setting in Africa, programmers decided to include women in the major refugee leadership councils. This attempt was met with complete resistance on the part of both men and women refugees who said that, in their tradition, 'Kings are born, not made'. Nonetheless, through further consultation and listening, UNHCR staff were able to identify a range of traditional activities in which women played a leading role. Using these modalities, it was possible to increase their participation in a politically meaningful and culturally appropriate way. (PeopleOriented Planning At Work: Using POP to Improve UNHCR Programming, 1994:30) 'We have to talk with refugee women', says Elizabeth Ferris. 'Refugee women will tell you about cultural differences; they will tell you whether they are food providers, farmers or teachers. We need to form collaborative relationships.'
Expanding the use of the guidelines
The UNHCR Guidelines now need to be updated to include issues of reproductive health, female genital mutilation, repatriation, genderbased persecution and asylum claims. But, at this point, they are the best available and should be implemented. Some NGOs are integrating this issue into their work. Oxfam is including training on gender issues in its programmes and the International Rescue Committee reports that it is instituting PeopleOriented Planning as a training tool for staff in the field. In an effort to improve implementation of the UNHCR Guidelines, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children has undertaken a threeyear project to promote the participation and protection of refuge women. The Commission has asked representatives of UNHCR and NGOs (eg CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Church World Service, InterAction, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Save the Children and World Vision) to serve on an advisory committee. This committee will explore ways to implement the Guidelines and review efforts to involve refugee women in planning and implementing relief activities.
In its factfinding missions to refugee sites, the Women's Commission is looking into whether, and how effectively, the Guidelines are being implemented. Delegations talk with NGO and UNHCR field workers, suggesting changes to improve the situation of refugee women.
With the commitment of intergovernmental agencies, NGOs and refugees, women can play a more active role, which will bring about improvements for all refugees. Women refugees are not helpless victims. They have an important role to play as decision makers and policy makers, and their rights must be protected.
Diana Quick is Public Affairs and Communications Specialist for the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children in New York.
1. Review of the Implementation and Impact of UNHCR's Policy on Refugee Women, 1993:29, para 111.
October 1996