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Social, Humanitarian & Cultural Committee (SOCHUM)
Security of Women’s Rights for Refugees and IDPs
Introduction
Currently, the world is facing the biggest refugee crisis in its history. There are more
than 65.3 million displaced persons in the world, a number almost as high as the population of
France. About half of all refugees worldwide are female. With such a high percentage of female
refugees, exploitation and denial of basic rights has become a major problem within the
community of refugees. Sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) has become an ongoing
issue in the global refugee community.
Conflict is the root of many, if not all refugee crises. The recent influx in the number of
refugees isn’t just contained to the Middle East. The nine million displaced people in Asia mostly
are victims of the conflict in Myanmar or Kyrgyzstan. That number has increased by 31% since
2014. These displaced people have no protection or provisions of any kind, as only three
countries in Asia have signed onto the 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of
Refugees. With the ongoing crises in Central African Republic (CAR), Nigeria, and South
Sudan, as well as the eruption of conflict in Burundi and Yemen, the number of refugees in
Africa has skyrocketed. In 2015, the United Nations established twelve camps in Africa,
providing them necessities such as school environments, camp lighting, as well as improving
camp security. Having provisions like these are crucial for refugee camps, as they are security
measures that need to be taken to ensure the safety of refugees. Crises aren’t contained to
developing nations either. Many refugees are relocating to Europe, 135,711 people as of the
beginning of 2016, where they have a difficult time being integrated into society, and are
extremely vulnerable to violence and exploitation.
Since many refugees are not citizens of their host country, they do not receive the same
protection under state laws and therefore, have no rights. For example, Rohingya Muslims from
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the mostly Buddhist Myanmar were not recognized in Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Act, which
established 135 state recognized ethnic groups. This excluded them from rights provided by
Myanmar, and they continue to endure state-lead persecution. Women and children have
continued to be especially vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse as well as human trafficking
in refugee camps. Eighty-two percent of female refugees in the Middle East claim to have been
victim to some sort of sexual assault. Though there seems to be an alarming amount of cases of
domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of exploitation within the global refugee
community, almost no cases ever make it to trial. The stigma surrounding sexual attacks in
specific religions, such as Islam, which many refugees in the Middle East and Africa are
adherents of, is a major issue when it comes to reporting exploitation. Women are also
extremely vulnerable in flight, or in transit to asylum, as the refugee crisis in Myanmar has
shown countless encounters of human trafficking in Bangladeshi waters.
Article three of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that, “everyone has the
right to life, liberty and security of person.” With constant fear of exploitation and SGBV for
female refugees, security of person is not always a guarantee. As SOCHUM, the committee
needs to work collaboratively and diplomatically to help secure rights for female refugees so that
they can live safely and securely in camps.
With the recent influx of refugees into countries other than their own, the global
community needs to realize that they are protecting other humans from a situation that could
potentially cost them their lives. This needs to be a cooperation on a global scale, as the
economic strain on a single country would be too large to support this many people.
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Background
The United Nations, since its creation in 1945, has worked ruthlessly to ensure that
every human being is guaranteed basic rights. In 1948, the international community agreed to a
set of rights given to all humans, no matter race, sex, religion, origin, or other attributes. The
document stresses the importance of securing rights for everyone, yet, in parts of the world, so
little is being done to help secure these rights for women.
In 1995, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released
Guidelines on Prevention and Response, an article that goes in depth about how and why
violence occurs in refugee populations. The guidelines also outline steps to help prevent sexual
harassment in refugee camps. This guide is crucial in figuring out, not only how to help prevent
sexual harassment, but also in figuring out how to prevent other forms of violence and
exploitation in the camps and in flight. UNHCR also published Guidelines on the Protection of
Refugee Women (1991) which focuses the aspect more specifically on women and girls.
Putting more UN employees or other volunteers into refugee camps as well as in conflict
zones has been an action taken by the international community in the past. However, with such
a large percentage of males put into place, 71%, this has proven to be problematic. Males
become a major player in this cycle of violence, taking part in many of the crimes mentioned.
According to the Women’s Refugee Commission, displaced girls are even more exposed
and susceptible to exploitation, abuse, and sexual violence. This violence has many different
aspects, and though rape and sexual crimes are a major aspect, there are many other facets to
the issue of limited rights for female refugees.
It is vital to recognize what actions constitute as a cultural practice versus human rights
abuse; varying cultures experience varying traditions and customs. Related actions condemned
or prohibited by the United Nations include: female genital mutilation, all forms of discrimination
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against women, early marriage, practices that prevent women from controlling their personal
fertility, female infanticide, dowry deaths, and any other act which “violate female dignity.”
Female genital mutilation is a common practice in parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle
East. Though the UN has long condemned this practice, 100 to 140 million girls worldwide have
fallen victim to FGM. Not only is the surgery itself dangerous for girls, but it can also be a major
issue when the female is preparing to give birth. Proper prenatal and postpartum care have not
been provided for female refugees. In one South Sudanese camp, for every 10,000 people, four
children a day died. Being able to provide proper healthcare for women in these camps, as well
as their children, is crucial in helping to restore rights for female refugees.
In the past and continuous through today, the creation of political refugees and IDPs is a
result of conflict, persecution, or both, as often these two reasons occur hand-in-hand. Cultural
stigma and oppression allowed the countless human rights violations present in today’s
displaced crisis to continue, as well as hinder the global fight for gender, ethnic, and racial
equality. The severity of the lack of security for women’s rights in situations of displacement is
due to many factors: a worsening global refugee and IDP situation, the struggle finding the line
between what is culturally appropriate and what is human rights abuse, and, while
improvements are being made, continuous gender inequality.
Camps are often crowded, low on security, and full of women, which makes it a perfect
location for human traffickers to prey on victims. These predators prey on minors or even older
women and refugees to be soldiers, combat purposes, cheap labor, or for slavery. According to
the UNHCR, approximately 80% of victims are women and girls, and 50% of those are minors.
It’s difficult to report exact statistics on human trafficking, seeing as the practice is secretive due
to the illegality. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) like the International Organization for
Migration have put campaigns into effect along with the Public Service Department (PSD) to
help raise awareness about human trafficking as well as to assist victims. Though this campaign
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was specific to Jordan and the Middle East, campaigns like this are being put into effect around
the world.
Overcrowded refugee camps result in lack of security and as a result, many other issues
such as high rates of child marriage, rape, and other forms of violence towards women. Even
official camps that are managed by the UNHCR itself experience difficulties - as of June 3rd,
2013, the UN’s humanitarian appeal for Syrian refugees was only 23% funded. Prior to the
beginning of the Syrian civil war, nearly 13% of all girls were married by the age of 18. However,
almost twice as many girls in refugee camps in neighboring Jordan and Lebanon married by the
age of 18 in 2015. A similar situation is present in Bangladesh in regions prone to extreme
flooding and erosion where families marry off their daughters at young ages in order to prevent
harm from coming to them, often acting in what they believe in best for their daughter’s wellbeing.
Stressful and dangerous living conditions refugees and the internally displaced are
forced to live under is what allows for violence to occur against vulnerable populations without
great difficulty, especially in regions with distraught governments, wars, and other conflicts that
prevent authorities from taking appropriate response towards these crimes. Despite countless
efforts by the international community to alleviate dangers present in these environments,
conflict, persecution, and confusion continue to push displaced persons towards unsafe
situations.
Travel is one of the most dangerous tasks for a refugee to undertake. In January of
2016, just over 55% of refugees arriving in Europe from the Middle East and North Africa were
women and children, compared to only 27% in June of 2015. The International Organization for
Migration (IOM) reported in 2014 that a minimum of 3,200 migrants died traveling through the
Mediterranean Sea to Italy. In June of 2016, refugee fatalities occurring overseas in the
Mediterranean reached 10,000. Of the 63,000 refugees that fled from Myanmar and Bangladesh
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by sea in 2014, 5,000-8,000 were left stranded. Another problem associated with travel is for the
displaced to gather enough funds to pay for smugglers to take them, and often results in women
and girls to submit to prostitution in order to pay their fees.
This issue is one that is taking the world by storm. Though the issue seems extremely
complex, many organizations and governments have taken action and gotten involved in
helping female refugees around the world. UNHCR, partnered with the Ikea Foundation, have
donated $198 million dollars to refugees since 2010. By providing refugees with something as
simple as light fixtures in camps, they have helped prevent many potential cases of abuse.
Organizations have also release reports like the Women’s Commission Women and Girls in the
European Refugee Crisis Report. Releasing reports like this has allowed the public to be more
knowledgeable about this issue.
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Current Events and Conflicts
Problems within More-Developed Countries (MDCs)
Recent events within Europe involving refugees, specifically within Germany and
Sweden, have brought new concerns to the safety and security of displaced persons. Additional
concerns exist because MDCs are believed to be a safe environment for refugees compared to
the conditions they resided in within their home state. This is a common factor in the movement
of refugees to European MDCs. However, these very characteristics that draw displaced
persons to European countries - safety and security - result in overcrowding of refugee camps
and lack of security thereof. In Germany, there are 28,500 resettlement areas with
approximately 800,000 refugees, and according to The Daily Wire, these areas are, “minimally
supervised and underdeveloped.” This is a problem that derives directly from the large influx of
refugees to Germany that outweigh Germany’s available resources to care for them.
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Situations by Region
Southeast Asia
The refugee crisis of Southeast Asia is an often overlooked piece of the global refugee
crisis as it stands today. Only three states - Cambodia, East Timor, and the Philippines - have
signed the 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees and only the
Philippines is a signatory to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. As a result, refugee treatment and
placement within Southeast Asia has become a particularly difficult situation.
One of the most prominent groups facing persecution within Southeast Asia are the
Rohingya Muslims, primarily of Myanmar and Bangladesh. Nearly 63,000 refugees from these
two states fled by sea in 2014 to escape religious persecution in an attempt to travel across the
Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea to Malaysia, where large populations of Rohingya Muslims
resided already. In February of 2013, at least thirteen female members of the minority group
were found raped and tortured by Burmese officials. While examining the issue of sexual and
gender-based violence towards refugees, it is encouraged to look at not only incidents of
physically displaced persons, but also cases that cause people to flee their homes.
North Africa and the Middle East
The most notable case of refugee crises today is that of Syria. There are currently
4,837,000 registered Syrian refugees and over 6.6 million internally displaced persons. The
Middle East and North Africa hold the top five highest-producing countries of refugees - Syrian
Arab Republic, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan. According to the UNHCR, more
than 90% of the 26,000 refugees fleeing from South Sudan to Uganda are women and children.
The most notorious conditions for sexual violence to occur in this region is during travel and
within the overcrowded camps established for refugees and IDPs.
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Sexual violence of North Africa is found at its worse in Sudan, a state where over
3,100,000 of its residents exist as IDPs and violence, discrimination, and abuse are found
widespread and frequently. The Human Rights Watch released information on cases of
organized mass rape of at least 200 women by Sudanese officials in the Darfur region of Sudan
in October of 2014. Cases like this, which demonstrate horrific cases of human rights violations,
are ones that this committee is working to prevent.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 26% of the total world’s population of refugees, nearly 18
million people of concern, primarily from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nigeria,
Central African Republic, and Burundi. Refugees and IDPs are created here as a result of
cultural conflict between ethnic groups, government instability, and environmental conditions,
particularly as a result of drought. In the DRC, 10,323 incidents of SGBV were reported, while
only 203 received appropriate legal assistance. In Chad, 622 cases were reported in 2015, but
only 75 received “appropriate support” defined by the standards of the UNHCR based off of
indicators such as psychological treatment, legal representation, medical care, and provision of
security measures to ensure safety of victims.
Latin America
Latin American refugees are found widespread throughout the Americas, with large
populations originating from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and Colombia. At the end of 2015,
Colombia hosted over 6,941,200 IDPs, a 15% increase from 2013. Violence in Colombia exists
as a result of internal conflict, such as constant guerilla movements and the drug industry’s
efforts to expand coca production. Children and adolescents all over South and Central America
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are forced into extreme methods for survival, including heavy involvement in the drug industry
and prostitution for young females in order to make enough money to survive.
Then vs. Now
Between 1990 and 2014, the global refugee population decreased from 19,805,688 to
17,531,780. While sexual assault is considered a severely underreported crime, with
projections of as many as two out of three rapes worldwide that go unreported, studies show
that as gender-related development indexes of countries around the globe rise, women in
particular are becoming more confident and more likely to report instances of assault; however,
the massive influx of refugees and IDPs over the past few years results in a higher vulnerable
population, which often results in higher numbers of assault. In the North Kivu region of the
DRC, cases of sexual assault against the internally displaced rose from 4,679 cases in 2011 to
over 7,000 in 2012.
State and UN Collaboration to End SGBV
In 1993, the UN General Assembly created the Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence Against Women. Today, nearly 23 years later, 1 in 3 women, an estimated 35%
worldwide, have fallen victim to either physical or sexual violence. Countless nations have
adopted measures in order to promote gender equality with focuses on reporting, providing
victims with appropriate assistance, and prevention within their displaced communities. The
UNHCR is currently working in Sudan to provide assault victims access to facilitated medical
services, with a current target of providing medical services to twice as many victims than in
2015, and psychological counseling, with a current target more than nine times the number of
treated victims in 2015.
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Conclusion
The issue of gender-based violence is a major problem within today’s global refugee
crisis. As the United Nations 3rd Committee for Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural affairs,
delegates should work to create a resolution that applies to both prevention of violence against
displaced persons, as well as addresses the needs of existing victims. In order to do so, it must
be taken into consideration issues present in every corner of the Earth - from South America to
Southeast Asia, and from 3rd world nations to even first world nations. Delegates are
encouraged to research situations that allow sexual violence to occur more easily, how to
address the argument of cultural practices versus human rights violations, and past actions that
attempted to eliminate SGBV.
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Guiding Questions:
1. What particular aspects of the life of displaced persons allow sexual and gender-based
violence to occur more easily?
2. What is your nation’s connection to the global refugee crisis? In what ways can your
nation develop a solution that prevents women’s rights from further abuse and also
applies to those who have already fallen victim?
3. What are current barriers hindering the progress of global gender equality? How can this
committee address this issue on a global scale, not just in one specific region?
4. What can SOCHUM do to differentiate between cultural practices and beliefs and
violations of human rights when it comes to protecting female refugees?
5. How can this committee promote reporting and responding of abuses and human rights
violations while still ensuring safety of victims?
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Helpful Links
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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/apr/06/security-concerns-syrianrefugee-camp
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http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/endviol/index.shtml
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Elaborates on the dangers of having little security in refugee camps
Details different types of violence against women
http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-andfigures#notes
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The entire “UN Women” website is a very helpful resource. This link provides a
very detailed overview of violence against women around the world, as well as
methods to cease violence.
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http://reporting.unhcr.org/
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This website provides detailed figures on nearly every nation regarding displaced
persons
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https://cleancookstoves.org/binary-data/ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/331-1.pdf
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Example of how the slightest day-to-day tasks pose as a danger to women, as
well as valuable statistics
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http://www.un.org/en/documents/ods/
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United Nations Official Documents System Search