The Responsibility of the Relief Community
The international relief community has been slow to address the problem of rape in refugee camps. Guidelines have been developed to improve protection, but while these documents reflect enhanced awareness of the urgent plight of refugee women, they have not been consistently implemented by UNHCR, host countries or nongovernmental relief organizations. UNHCR—the lead U.N. agency for refugee relief and protection—has promulgated two sets of guidelines to deal with sexual assault of refugee women. In July 1991, UNHCR promulgated the "Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women" to assist the staff of UNHCR to identify and respond to the issues, problems and risks facing refugee women. In March 1995, UNHCR issued the Sexual Violence Guidelines described above to improve or initiate services to address the special needs and concerns of refugees who have been subjected to sexual violence.
The "Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women" [hereafter "Protection Guidelines"] prescribe measures that "can" or "may" be taken to counter physical and sexual attacks and abuse of women during flight and in their countries of asylum.11 They call for, among other things: (1) changing the physical design and location of refugee camps to provide greater physical security; (2) using security patrols; (3) reducing the use of closed facilities or detention centers; (4) training staff regarding the particular problems faced by refugee women and employing female staff to work with women refugees to identify their concerns; (5) establishing mechanisms for law enforcement within the refugee camps; (6) educating refugee women about their rights; (7) giving priority to assessing the protection needs of unaccompanied refugeewomen; and (8) ensuring women's direct access to food and other services, including whatever registration process is used to determine eligibility for assistance.
The Sexual Violence Guidelines supplement the Protection Guidelines by suggesting a range of preventive measures that can and should be taken to prevent sexual violence. In particular, these steps include, among others: (1) ensuring that the physical design and location of the refugee camps enhance physical security; (2) providing frequent security patrols by law enforcement authorities and by the refugees themselves; (3) installing fencing around the camps; (4) identifying and promoting alternatives to refugee camps where possible; (5) organizing inter-agency meetings between UNHCR, other relief organizations and relevant government officials, as well as the refugees themselves, to develop a plan of action to prevent sexual violence; and (6) assigning to the camps a greater number of female protection officers, field interpreters, doctors, health workers and counselors.
Despite some progress in implementing both these guidelines in UNHCR-run refugee camps, violence against refugee women is far from ended. In many cases, implementation problems stem from the fact that refugee situations often are crisis-driven, with relief workers overwhelmed by a seemingly endless refugee flow.
Aside from the exigencies of each situation, consistent implementation of the guidelines is also undermined within UNHCR. The UNHCR itself has acknowledged that its staff may avoid confronting or remedying widespread sexual violence in refugee camps because of personal discomfort with addressing the issue or a perception that such acts are a "private matter" or "an inevitable by-product" of the conflict.12 Additionally, underreporting of sexual assault allows relief workers to deny the scale of such violence.
11 UNHCR, "Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women," (Geneva: UNHCR, July 1991).
12 UNHCR Sexual Violence Guidelines, p. 7.
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