UNHCR REFUGEE POLICY, OPERATION OF NGOs AND WOMEN REFUGEES' EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA (original) (raw)
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An Overview of Literature on Status of Women Refugees of India
2019
A comprehensive and systematic review of the past relevant literature is essential for scientific research. A reference to the past studies provides guideline not only with respect to objectives and methodology, but also suggests operational definition of concepts thereby providing a basis for interpretation of findings. Review of literature has been incorporate in the relevant part of this project in order to make the result more meaningful. But unfortunately, the present investigation is almost new in its field. There is hardly any study available in Odisha in the field of refugee status of women of Odisha. So, the present study would serve as a stepping stone. So far as research on social, economic and demographic status of refugee women in Odisha is concerned, the present one would be of different one of its kind in the state. An attempt has been made to present the past literatures having a bearing on the present study as direct or indirect inferences. The present paper aims at making a review of the available literature on refugee women. The basic purpose hovers around the interest to generate insight into the phenomenon of effective implementation of Govt. policy for refugee women and to study the socio, economic, health and legal status of refugee women of Odisha, and to bring out correction in the implementation of safety and security measures for the refugee women that can ensure social and political harmony.
Synergy of Multi-actors in the Empowerment of Women Refugees in Indonesia
Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Innovation on Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences (ICOSI-HESS 2022), 2022
Refugees are a severe problem encountering numerous countries, encompassing Indonesia. Although Indonesia is not a country which signed the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the Refugee Protocol of 1967, it is actively a stopover country providing a place for refugees from other countries before they are located in the destination country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that until July 2020, there were 13,653 refugees, with 27% female and 73% male. Women refugees possess different challenges than men because they have to provide daily food needs, education, and health for their families, particularly their children. Women refugees own problems when menstruating or pregnant. They require clean sanitation to assure reproductive health. Women refugees are also prone to sexual harassment, violence, and human trafficking. This condition encourages UNHCR to conduct programs in empowering women refugees. However, the single role of UNHCR is not sufficient. This research identifies the synergy of the roles of the primary actors in empowering women refugees in Indonesia, particularly Afghan refugees by employing the qualitative method. The results signify a mutually supportive role of various actors in encouraging women refugees. UNHCR collaborates with the Indonesian government and non-governmental organizations to generate workshops and training for women refugees. Skills and training escalate the economic independence of women refugees. However, there are still obstacles which have to be resolved, that is increasing women's capacity and fulfilling women's rights.
The study had three main objectives: firstly, it examined the livelihoods strategies of Sudanese women refugees in Ethiopia. Secondly, it examined the role(s) played by the UNHCR, internationals and local NGOs, state agencies and other Community Based Organizations in providing material assistance to Sudanese women refugees in Ethiopia; and thirdly, it examined problems encountered by these refugee women in the pursuit of earning a living. The study area was the Tsore refugee camp in Ethiopia and involved women refugees from age 18 and above. The purposive female sample ranged from married, separated, divorce, to single or widowed. Women refugees were the focus of this study as due to the fact that they constitute a more vulnerable population among refugees and forced migrants. Close and open-ended Questionnaires, in-depth interviews, focused group discussions and direct observations were all appropriated in collecting data from the female informants. Also, two focused group discussions and interview sessions were held with representatives of NGOs, UNHCR, Community-Based Organizations and Administration for Refugee and Returnees Affairs. The study found Sudanese refugee women as being involved in various income-generating activities, including, petty-trading, hair-dressing and dress-making. A few informants had formal wage employment and even those jobs were mainly with aid agencies. The younger women veered towards labour intensive jobs, such as food vending and trading. Also, occupational combination was a common practice among the informants, as they had several income sources to ensure profitability and economic security. The informants were found to be highly mobile and, in so doing, diversified the informants’ livelihood options; for, some refugees moved out of camp during the day to work and returned to sleep in the camp. Furthermore, the study found informants facing a number of obstacles in their effort to make a living. These problems included, low and unreliable incomes, lack of capital and employment in the formal sector, which offer immediate and long-term economic security. From the findings, it was recommended that aid agencies should help establish credit scheme for women refugees. Also, refugees and other beneficiaries of programmes designed to promote self-sufficiency, should be involved in such well-intentioned initiatives. In a word, the study did not find Sudanese refugee women as passive recipients and long-term dependants of local and international relief aid.
International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 2015
This study aims at evaluating a vocational training programme entitled 'Women and Girls Oasis' at the Zaatari Refugee Camp in the city of Mafraq, Jordan. The research study was undertaken in 2014/2015, and highlights the impact of such vocational training programmes on the well-being of Syrian women refugees. The results show that 'Women and Girls Oasis' Programme enhanced women's confidence and self-esteem, improved their occupational business, and entrepreneurship skills, helped them generate income to build a better life for their shattered families; and gave them hope and opportunities after experiencing war firsthand. The study reveals that in a refugee community, patterns are deconstructed and gender roles may be changed; this gender equality and women empowerment are seen as perquisites for sustainable development and achieving the millennium development goal. The study offers recommendations for UN Women, UNHCR and similar NGO's concerned with the well-being of refugees in Jordan and neighbouring countries.
Unrecognized Burma Women as Refugee in India- They Need Protection against Gender-Based Violence
In the present study, the researcher is going to consider the present status of women Burmese-Chin refugees, recognized as well as unrecognized one. It is worth mentioning that, between 75 to 80 percent of the world's refugees is women and children and many of them have been living in camps and emergency situations for generations and India also is no exception. The women Chin refugees in India almost have not enjoyed the rights of education, occupation, freedom of movement and accessing to health care services and so forth. Therefore, it is not enough to leave policies and practices in refugees to ad hoc administrative decision, especially when women refugees as vulnerable communities are under discriminatory conditions. Unfortunately the policies and strategies to incorporate women have not yet been implemented sufficiently to bring about the real improvement in the lives of Burmese refugee women in India and it is clear that refugees, men as well as women particularly those refugees who are living in camps in Mizoram are not getting all necessary assistance from Indian government. The present research work will prove that in Indie, the appropriate national law towards making law conforming to constitutional and international obligations and more state and international development level programs through international non-governmental and governmental agencies for protecting and empowerment of Burmese refugee women and reviewing UNHCR's livelihoods programes to be needed.
REFUGEE WOMEN: TWENTY YEARS ON
Refugee Survey Quarterly, 2010
Twenty years ago, refugee women were seldom consulted and their specific needs rarely identified or taken into account. Considerable progress has been made in the interim, although policy developments have far outstripped progress in practice. Over the past twenty years reproductive health services have become part of key global standards and increasingly practice, refugee women are usually individually registered, they generally receive the food rations, and innumerable programmes have been designed and implemented to empower and protect them. Gender-based violence has gone from an invisible issue to multi-faceted prevention and response initiatives. Policy development includes the High Commissioner's Five Commitments to Refugee Women, the rollout of UNHCR's age, gender and diversity mainstreaming initiative, the Executive Committee Conclusion on Women at Risk and the recent UNHCR Handbook on the Protection of Women and Girls. As the humanitarian community has broadened its depth of understanding and learning, new needs and issues have arisen. Issues currently on the international agenda to further protection refugee women include: how to effectively engage men, how to operationalize the prevention of genderbased violence; how to tackle the availability of safe access to cooking fuel in humanitarian settings; and how to effectively and safely economically empower refugee women. This paper will provide a brief overview of progress over the past twenty years and outline current issues that require further attention.
Rethinking women in internal displacement situation
Most studies on internal displacement have shown that women (who are often enumerated together with their children) make up 70 percent of the total internally displaced population. What is common in the studies is the depiction of women's suffering due to forced displacement. Women are rendered one of the most vulnerable by situations of forced displacement. They have to bear the brunt of the changing situation as caretakers of young and old, as earning members of the family, as wives who have to put up with emotional and often physical backlash that the husbands unleash upon them due to frustration resulting from their economic and psychological inability to sustain the expected gender roles.
2012
This article describes the case of an EU funded Life Long Learning Partnership between 5 organizations in The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and the UK. The organizations have a common goal to support refugees, and most of the participants in this program are henceforth refugees seeking employment. We describe the relation between EU policy, and the role of national policies and institutions in these countries. The approach for change starts with individual narratives and the patterns we can discern in these narratives. This methodology developed by Dr. Ghorashi (2005, 2006, and 2010) is the framework wherein we work together and are carrying out research. According to Ghorashi refugees have to go through 3 stages in order to regain control over their lives and in so doing profit from the possibilities that for instance entrepreneurship can offer. The first stage is that of survival, the second that of recognition and the third phase that of feeling at home in the new host country. Parallel to these stages she distinguishes 3 phases in the process of empowerment: reliving the pain through storytelling and developing another perspective, contextualizing the experiences through the identification of patterns and lastly abstraction and acting. Refugees form a large and growing group in Europe, hence an understanding how they can be activated is of great importance. This forms the justification for this article which seeks to open up new ways of approaching this large group of people with hidden talents and a huge economic potential. This article especially focuses on the learning and activation of fifty female refugees of at least 40 different countries, in order to become participants in the labor market and society in general.
In this research work, the researcher is going to consider the effects of existence and non-existence of specific law in the protection of refugees regarding their social security rights and poverty reduction in India. India covers 4.5 lack refugees from various countries, including Tibet, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka Afghanistan, and Sudan. Therefore, it's very important to study how the presence or absence of particular law regarding refugees and their social security rights in India can be effective in reducing poverty among them which lead to improving their quality of life. The objectives of the present study are to analyze the various legislations relating to refugees and specifically the various Articles connected to their welfare and social security under international and national dimensions and to examine problems belong to India's refugees encounter to the pursuit of their life strategies. Furthermore, there is need to consider the state responsibility for the effective protection of refugee's welfare. This study is based on secondary data. In this regard, various libraries were visited and some online journals and websites were reviewed. Therefore the researcher will prove that the presence law towards refugee's community and their welfare and social security rights is not so stable and adequate and unfortunately, the Indian governments are not recognizing and implementing the provisions of international conventions for the protection of interests of refugees inadequately.
New Approaches to Livelihood Challenges for Refugees in Urban Area Refuge June 2012
Refuge , 2012
Increasingly refugees live in urban areas -usually in slums impacted by unemployment, poverty, over-crowding and inadequate infrastructure. Host governments often restrict refugees' access to the labor market, access that can be further impeded by language barriers, arbitrary fees, and discrimination. UNHCR and its partners are seldom equipped to understand and navigate the complex urban economic environment in order to create opportunities for refugees in these settings. Based on assessments undertaken in 2010 and 2011 in Kampala, New Delhi and Johannesburg, research findings indicate that refugees in urban areas adopt a variety of economic coping strategies, many of which place them at risk, and that new approaches and different partnerships are needed for the design and implementation of economic programs.