Women Refugees in Conflict and Post Conflict Situations.

1. Women Refugees in Conflict and Post Conflict Situations. The Challenges and Opportunities. r.m.m.wallace April 2008

2. International Context • Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action 1993; • Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women 1993; See also SG Report 2006; and GA Resol. Jan 2007; • CEDAW; • Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan • UNHCR Ex Comm; • 2002 Global Gender Related Guidelines UNHCR r.m.m.wallace April 2008

3. Gender • Not same as biological sex. • Refers to socially & culturallyconstructed experience of being woman/man & power relations between them • Affects women’s/men’s social identity, status, roles &responsibilities. • Gender relations & gender differences are historically,geographically & culturally specific • What it means to be a woman/man may vary over time/place & may be affected by other factors, e.g. race, age, class & marital status. r.m.m.wallace April 2008

4. Definition of refugee A person who; “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality, and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.” r.m.m.wallace April 2008

5. Gender in asylum claims • Asylum seeker may be persecuted in a • ·gender specific manner for reasons unrelated to gender (e.g. raped because of membership of political party), • ·may be persecuted in non-gender specific manner, but because of gender (e.g. flogged for refusing to wear veil), & • ·persecuted in gender specific manner &because of gender (FGM or honour killing). r.m.m.wallace April 2008

6. Barriers Women have had to Surmount • Convention definition gender neutral • Jurisprudence – developed from male perspective • Women experience gender specific persecution • Procedural & evidential requirements not equally accessible to women & men • Response to increased awareness of role of gender r.m.m.wallace April 2008

7. Particular social group • UNHCR definition: “a group of persons who share a common characteristic other than their risk of being persecuted, or who are perceived as a group by society. The characteristic will often be one which is innate, unchangeable, or which is otherwise fundamental to identity, conscience or the exercise of one’s human rights.” r.m.m.wallace April 2008

8. Examples of particular social group • unprotected ---women subject to wife abuse”; • “women who have more than one child and are faced with forced sterilisation”; • “women”; • “family”; • “former victims of trafficking” r.m.m.wallace April 2008

9. UK Cases • R.v Immigration Appeal Tribunal, ex p Shah and Islam HL [1999] 2 AC 629; • Secretary of State for the Home Department (Respondent) v. K (FC) (Appellant) Fornah (FC) (Appellant) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department (Respondent) Appellate Committee [2006] UKHL 46. • SB (PSG-Protection Regulations- Reg 6)Modova CG [2008] UKAIT 00002 r.m.m.wallace April 2008

10. Guidelines in the Determination Process • IRB Guideline on Women Refugee Claimants Fearing Gender-Related Persecution 1993, updated 1996 & 2003. • US Gender Guidelines 1995 • Guidelines on Gender Issues for Decision Makers (Australia 1996) • United Kingdom 2000 • Sweden 2001 r.m.m.wallace April 2008

11. What Gender Awareness does NOT do • dilute the standard of proof demanded for a claim to succeed. • open the ‘floodgates’ r.m.m.wallace April 2008

12. Nation Building The Four Rs • Repatriation; • Reintegration; • Rehabilitation; • Reconstruction. r.m.m.wallace April 2008