The young woman and her six children ran into a group of men not far from the village in eastern DRC's volatile North Kivu province. "My reaction was a sigh of relief, thinking we were not going to run anymore," Kahindo recalled. "I was wrong."

She was led away from her children and then "six armed men stripped me naked. They began to rape me one after the other until I went into a coma," an emotional Kahindo told UNHCR near the North Kivu capital, Goma. "They left me for dead."

Today, almost four years later, this forcibly displaced woman sometimes feels that she might as well have died. In between sobs, she told of the terrible price she has paid. "Medical tests showed that I also contracted HIV," she said, adding: "The impact of rape is not just. The stigma that I face is not just, either."

The widow believes, "I was raped as a punishment for what I am. Those men wanted to degrade me and insult my family, dignity, my culture and everything I stand for."

Her story is appalling, but by no means isolated. According to UN figures, almost 3,500 females were raped by soldiers, militiamen and civilians during the first six months of this year in eastern DRC, compared to some 4,800 for the whole of 2008. The real figures are believed to be higher because many victims do not come forward. During a visit to North Kivu last August, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the widespread sexual violence against women in the conflict-swept region as "a crime against humanity."

The forcibly displaced are particularly vulnerable in an area where hundreds of thousands are living with host families or in camps run by UNHCR despite the formal end of war in the DRC in 2003. Civilians live under the constant threat of armed men who pillage, rape, burn houses and confiscate food rations.

These women are every much in the mind of UNHCR and its implementing partners in the area such as Women for Women International (WWI) and Search for Common Ground during the 16 Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women, an annual international campaign that began on Wednesday.

WWI has a project in the DRC to help rape victims restore their shattered lives. "We are making a difference in the lives of rape survivors," said Jose Rugamba, a WWI counsellor based in Goma. "But we cannot say the phenomenon has diminished," she added.

Lena Slachmuijlder, director of Search for Common Ground, said years of war had radicalized attitudes towards women and this was obstructing attempts to combat sexual violence in the DRC. "That is why the scourge of gender-based sexual violence will not reduce, or end, anytime soon."

Most women argue that the failure to jail and punish convicted offenders has led to a culture of impunity and to growing misogyny. "Twenty years is usually the jail term for offenders. But here in Congo, a rapist can be released after paying the equivalent of US$3 to a prison warden," claimed one woman.

Sexual violence can also have a devastating effect on family relationships. Rape survivors are often rejected by family members and their communities, who fail to appreciate the physical and psychological trauma of rape. Changing mindsets will take a long time.

"The best strategy to winning this war is to prevent rape from taking place," said Karl Steinacker, coordinator of UNHCR operations in eastern DRC. That will be a tough task, and one that must tackle immunity and help spread awareness.

Under a UNHCR-sponsored programme, Search for Common Ground is trying to do the latter. The United States-based non-governmental organization has been going through towns and villages in eastern and south-eastern provinces screening films and videos on the issue of sexual and gender-based violence.

Slachmuijlder said the mobile cinema has an impact because the subjects of the films are real people. By allowing the victims of sexual violence to speak out, she said, "We are giving space for interaction and debate on issues people consider taboo, but which should be openly discussed to demystify the issues."

In partnership with other agencies, UNHCR is also assisting rape victims through counselling, medical treatment, micro-finance projects and reintegration activities.

By David Nthengwe in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo

"I am very thankful for the support we are receiving from the UAE leadership and people, something that demonstrates the rich giving traditions that are well established in this country," Guterres told UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash during a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

He reiterated UNHCR's gratitude for the support of the UAE in helping the forcibly displaced during a meeting with Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, head of the UAE Red Crescent.

The United Arab Emirates is becoming a leading donor to UNHCR and has recently been invited to join the 20+ million club, UNHCR's informal forum for major donors.

During his time in Abu Dhabi, the High Commissioner also delivered a presentation at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research on the comparative study, "The Right to Asylum between Islamic Shari'ah and International Refugee Law."

The book, co-sponsored by UNHCR and written by Cairo University law professor Ahmed Abu Al-Wafa, demonstrates the common content of asylum in Arab customs, Islamic Sharia'ah and international humanitarian law.

The High Commissioner also visited Qatar.

"Gender-based violence is one of the most virulent, culturally endemic, and persistent trends in the world," Guterres noted in a special message to staff to mark the start of the annual 16 Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women, an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute in 1991.

"Sexual violence is a brutal form of physical and psychological warfare rooted in the gender inequality extant not only in zones of conflict, but in our everyday personal lives," said the High Commissioner, who described sexual violence as a major global security concern.

"The persistence of such forms of violence undermine peace and security and shatter community and family ties. It demands a personal as well as a collective response," he stressed, while adding: "The prevention of sexual violence must remain one of our highest priorities."

Gender-based violence is one of the most virulent, culturally endemic, and persistent trends in the world.

António Guterres

Guterres said preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence was increasingly integrated into UNHCR's efforts on physical protection, health, access to psycho-social support and justice, livelihoods, community empowerment and durable solutions.

He pledged that the refugee agency "will, along with other UN agencies, increasingly assist states in their efforts to prevent sexual violence, protect individuals and provide remedy to victims."

UNHCR staff at Geneva headquarters and in the field will be holding a wide range of activities over the 16 days under this year's theme of "Commit. Act. Demand. We can end violence against women." Headquarters is running exhibitions on victims of sex trafficking and promoting UNHCR initiatives to foster gender equality in refugee settings.

There will also be a personal address by Guterres as well as presentations by representatives of UN Action – a network of 12 UN agencies working to end sexual violence in conflict – and the White Ribbon Campaign, an organization focused on mobilizing men to end violence against women.

Evidence of the gravity of violence and discrimination against women worldwide is widespread. A selection of recent news headlines tell of one abuse after another: In Australia, 16 football players are arrested for raping an 18-year-old girl; In Somalia, a divorced woman is stoned to death on a charge of adultery; in the Netherlands, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic faces prosecution for crimes against humanity that include systematic rape.

The last decade, meanwhile, has seen renewed focus on the tactical use of sexual violence in conflict. In 2001, mass rape and sexual enslavement in wartime were, for the first time, regarded as a crime against humanity by the War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

More recently, a report from 18 Colombian women's organizations to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights showed an alarming increase in sexual violence by state security forces over the previous five years. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thought to have the highest rate of rape in the world, armed groups send messages to villages stating: "We will be raping your women and girls."

With sexual violence clearly integrated into military objectives, UN Security Resolutions 1820 and 1888 on "Women, Peace and Security," and the initiatives they have spawned, mark a milestone in the fight against sexual violence.

Guterres said the resolutions, passed in 2008 and 2009 respectively, represented the international community's clearest commitment to combating sexual violence in conflict. Yet gender-based violence is not just a problem for a few troubled states.

Also falling within the 16 days are International Women Human Rights Defenders Day (November 29), World AIDS Day (December 1), International Disability Day (December 3) and International Human Rights Day (December 10).

Each family will receive six blankets, four sleeping mats, and two plastic sheets for warmth and insulation, in addition to other relief supplies received when they initially registered in the camp. More than 82,000 blankets, 37,000 plastic sheets and some 55,000 sleeping mats will be distributed this week in several camps including in Jalozai, Jalala, Benazir complex, Wali Kandow, and Palosa in the North West Frontier Province.

Standard canvas tents are also being replaced with all-weather tents or being reinforced with extra insulation. Replacement of tents is continuing, with more than 3,000 tents replaced to date in the Jalozai camp. Other more recent camps like Wali Kandaw, in the Lower Dir district, were established with all-weather tents. More than 12,000 residents of the two Kacha Ghari camps will receive the winter packages and new all-weather tents when they relocate to Jalozai next week after Eid. A second round of winter assistance will follow including woollen shawls, solar lamps and fire wood.

There are currently more than 100,000 people residing in 10 camps of NWFP. Jalozai is the largest, accommodating more than 80,000 people, primarily from Bajaur, Khyber and Mohmand agencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Some residents have now lived at Jalozai camp for a year when they first fled fighting in Bajaur and Mohmand. About 30,000 people from Bajaur and Bara in Khyber Agency have registered at the camp since October.

Up to 900,000 people from the northern areas of FATA and NWFP could still be displaced and staying with host communities, according to overall relief distribution figures. Movement back and forth between displacement and return areas has made it difficult to have more precise estimate on the remaining IDPs. In partnership with other agencies, UNHCR is currently carrying out a re-screening process at seven humanitarian hubs in five districts of NWFP to better understand the scope and needs of the remaining displaced population.

For humanitarian agencies such as UNHCR, there is a very complex and mixed picture of displacement in north-west Pakistan, including care and maintenance for the longer term displaced people, return and reintegration programmes and emergency response for new displacements such as those from South Waziristan. For this latter group, UNHCR is continuing to distribute tents to people in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank who are staying with the host families to alleviate overcrowding. More than 14,000 family tents have been given out so far helping more than 100,000 people. In addition, relief items like sleeping mats, blankets, quilts, jerry cans and kitchen sets have been distributed to 275,000 people in more than 37,000 families.

More than 268,000 displaced people (36,700 families) from South Waziristan have now been verified by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), but fewer numbers of new families continue to be registered at three remaining centres in Dera Ismail Khan and one in Tank district of NWFP. Desks remain open to facilitate appeals of those people not verified by NADRA, including those having problems with the national ID cards.

The first phase of the winterization drive started on Monday in Jalozai camp, which is located near Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). It will continue in eight camps in the lead up to the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, which begins on Friday.

Each family will receive six blankets, four sleeping mats and two plastic sheets for warmth and insulation, in addition to other relief supplies received when they initially registered in the camp. The aid will be handed out with the help of community leaders this week in several camps, including Jalozai, Jalala, Benazir complex, Wali Kandow and Palosa in the NWFP.

Fifty-year-old farmer Gul welcomed the assistance that he received from UNHCR in Jalozai, while adding that he missed his village in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

"Many organizations provide assistance to us and we are surviving, but there is no comparison between living in a tent and living in a house," said the father of six, who fled fighting near his home in Bajaur agency a year ago. "I have worked hard to earn a living all my life. I don't like sitting idle and waiting for assistance, but then I have no other choice."

Young mother, Meena, was – perhaps surprisingly – looking forward to the winter. The 26-year-old, who also fled Bajaur last year, said her infant son fell ill during the summer because it was so hot. "I am hopeful that with the change of season, his health will improve," she said. But she particularly welcomed the blankets, which will keep the family warm during the winter.

Meanwhile, as part of the winterization programme, standard canvas tents are being replaced with all-weather tents or being reinforced with extra insulation. More than 3,000 tents have been replaced to date in the Jalozai camp. Newer camps, like Wali Kandaw in the Lower Dir district, were established with all-weather tents.

More than 12,000 residents of the two Kacha Ghari camps will receive the winter packages and new tents when they relocate to Jalozai next week after Eid. A second round of winter assistance will follow including, woollen shawls, solar lamps and fire wood.

There are currently more than 100,000 people residing in 10 camps in the North West Frontier Province. Jalozai is the largest, accommodating more than 80,000 people, primarily from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Some IDPs have now lived at Jalozai camp for a year. About 30,000 people from Bajaur and Bara in Khyber Agency have registered at the camp since October.

Up to 900,000 people from the northern areas of the FATA and NWFP could still be displaced and staying with host communities, according to overall relief distribution figures. Movement back and forth between displacement and return areas has made it difficult to have a more precise estimate on the remaining IDPs. In partnership with other agencies, UNHCR is carrying out a re-screening process in five districts of NWFP to better understand the scope and needs of the remaining displaced population.

For humanitarian agencies such as UNHCR, there is a very complex and mixed picture of displacement in north-west Pakistan, including care and maintenance for the longer term displaced people, return and reintegration programmes and emergency response for new displacements, such as those from South Waziristan. More than 268,000 displaced people (36,700 families) from South Waziristan have now been verified by Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority.

By Ariane Rummery in Islamabad and Rabia Ali in Peshawar, Pakistan

UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Erika Feller, addressing representatives of 20 countries in North and South America on Thursday, stressed that migrants and refugees were not the responsibility of just one organization, one country or one region, but the shared concern of all those seeking to protect the human rights of people on the move.

The two-day conference, which follows regional meetings in Yemen and Senegal over the past 18 months, was convened to address the issue of mixed migration flows in the Americas, principally from south to north.

The delegates are also looking at ways to implement UNHCR's 10-Point Plan of Action, which was developed to help governments protect refugees within increasingly complex population flows.

Millions of people are on the move around the world. Some seek better economic opportunities or to be reunited with family. Refugees have no choice, they flee their homelands to escape violence or persecution. But, increasingly, migrants and refugees travel together, sometimes resorting to the services of traffickers and smugglers.

The issue is of special relevance in the Americas, where there is a long tradition of migration and asylum. The American continent is home to some 800,000 refugees, or about one in 12 of the world's total refugee population.

Most migration in the region is intra-continental – from South America to the United States and Canada – although there has also been an increase in the number of people coming from other continents. Nations in the Caribbean and Central America, including Mexico, now face huge challenges as countries of transit. The numbers are difficult to ascertain: an estimated 500,000 people try to make their way every year to the United States via Mexico.

Not everybody on the move is vulnerable or in need of international protection, but all have fundamental human rights. Refugees have specific rights under international law and one of the biggest challenges for receiving countries is to be able to quickly identify refugees within mixed migration flows.

After Thursday's opening, delegates at the Costa Rica conference discussed ways of identifying and providing appropriate support to the most vulnerable people caught in mixed migration flows, such as unaccompanied minors, victims of human trafficking and pregnant women. They also debated the establishment of reception facilities, including shelter and health.

Feller said the main concerns for UNHCR were a lack of basic reception facilities, denial of entry to a country and the automatic and sometimes prolonged detention of people in migration flows, including refugees. She encouraged countries in North and South America to build on their national laws and good practices and pledged UNHCR's continued support.

The two-day conference is being hosted by the government of Costa Rica and jointly organized by UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Organization for American States (OAS), with the support of several other international organizations, including the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

By Marie-Helene Verney in San Jose, Costa Rica

We have moved quickly to help the displaced. They are now awaiting the outcome of negotiations with local farmers who attacked their homes on Tuesday, accusing them of stealing their jobs by accepting cheaper wages in vineyards. Documented refugees and asylum-seekers have the legal right to work in South Africa, but tensions often erupt over competition for jobs.

The evicted foreigners are now staying in a sports field and a community centre in De Doorns, sleeping under three communal tents supplied by the government. Each tent is sheltering some 1,000 people. These are mostly single men, but there are also some families. To ensure privacy for the families, we have donated smaller family tents, which were dispatched from our emergency stockpile in Durban and are expected to arrive in De Doorns this morning.

UNHCR welcomes the rapid humanitarian response of the local authorities and the fact that water, portable toilets and a mobile health clinic were provided within hours. In addition, the South African Red Cross has also been feeding the evicted with two hot meals a day.

This is the first large-scale xenophobic attack affecting refugees and asylum-seekers in South Africa since a country-wide violence in May, 2008.

UNHCR condemns this most recent violence and is sending two staff members from our Pretoria office – at the request of the local authorities – to work with the South African Human Rights Committee and all concerned parties to help bring the situation in De Dooms back to normal and make it safe for foreigners to return there.

At the end of 2008, there were an estimated 110,000 Zimbabwean asylum-seekers in South Africa.

Your role begins during an emergency. Tell us more

In an emergency situation, we need to quickly set up a system of latrines to avoid people defecating in the open and the spread of communicable diseases. These are temporary, communal latrines that are put in place from almost day one and maintained for the first three to six months. They are usually constructed from plastic sheeting and local materials on a plastic slab, or maybe a piece of wood that is cut. You dig a pit and put the wood on top. This helps ensure that human waste is not spread by people walking and that water sources are not contaminated.

What happens after the emergency period?

We build something more solid. One of the problems with emergency latrines is that they need to be maintained. For example, a block of five latrines may be used by some 500 people every day, but because they are communal nobody maintains them. Therefore you need to employ people to do that, which is not a great job and not really sustainable in the long term.

The next step is to move away from these communal latrines to household latrines . . . where each household or two households will have a common latrine . . . The ownership is with the people and they should clean their own latrines. But this does not always happen and that's why we do a lot of hygiene promotion activities, monitoring the state of the latrines, making sure they are clean, that there is a door to ensure privacy for women.

Who builds these latrines?

At the start, it will be UNHCR with the implementing partner. We pay people a salary, an incentive, to dig the pit and build the infrastructure. Because it's an emergency, everybody's in a rush to set up a system. With the household latrines, families dig their own pit and build their own infrastructure, with bushes, with trees, with mud, under the technical supervision of the implementing partner . . . at this stage it will be the refugees themselves doing it.

What happens if you don't build them?

A good example is Goma in 1994, when a million people crossed the border and, I think, about 50,000 people died because there was no proper sanitation and water supply. One of the major problems in Goma was that it was impossible to dig latrines because the [volcanic rock] ground was so hard and all the waste was spread around and contaminated the water that people were drinking. As a result, there was cholera everywhere.

You are part of UNHCR's health Unit. Why is that?

The reason why water and sanitation is under public health is because there is a strong link between public health and water and sanitation. For me, water and sanitation is the prevention, we prevent people from getting diaorrhea and other diseases. The public health people are more curative.

Tell us about the water distribution systems that are so important for sanitation in camps?

They need to be improved. During an emergency, [donor] money is usually flowing in and you can build a lot of pipelines, boreholes, and so on. When the emergency is over after a year, two years, three years, money is not coming in as it was before. Therefore the systems are getting old, people don't have any money to change the pipes or to do proper maintenance. A good example is Kenya, where the water supply system serves something like 250,000 people in three camps at Dadaab. But the bore has not been properly maintained, while the system is old and has not been maintained either. So we can't supply enough water to the population . . . I have been to Djibouti and I'm going next week to Ethiopia and I think it is a similar trend.

Are there innovations in latrine design and technology?

Yes, of course. If you look at the situation 15 years ago, you were just digging a pit and that was it. Now, a lot of people are talking about biogas [produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen]. Every time someone defecates, you have a gas – methane. We use this gas to create energy and more and more people are looking at the possibility of reusing this gas as an alternative, environmentally friendly fuel. Or there is another thing called ecosan, which is ecological sanitation.

And then there are different designs in different places, whatever suits people best. If you travel around, you will see square latrines in some places, ring latrines in others, or some made with used clothes, plastic sheeting, bamboo or stone. You can find different designs and infrastructure and that's what makes it fun, because you need to use your imagination to make sure you have the structure best suited to the culture of the people

How many latrines does UNHCR or its implementing partners build?

It's difficult to say. On the basis of one latrine for every 50 people, there are an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 latrines in camps across the world currently. Maybe we fill in and replace 10-15 percent on an annual basis, which means we are building 10,000-15,000 latrines every year.

What about cultural considerations?

I will give you an example of something that happened in Indonesia after the [2004 Indian Ocean] tsunami. Green is the Muslim colour, something that you need to respect. One group built latrines and put green on the floor – that showed disrespect to the Muslims. The position of the latrine is important too; you should not have your back facing towards Mecca. Respect for women is another consideration. Usually, we separate latrines between men and women.

For these unscrupulous gangs, nothing is easier than dumping an unsuspecting Asian refugee on a small Caribbean island state and telling him he is near Canada, or telling a Middle Eastern refugee he is already in Florida.

Days or even weeks may pass before the bewildered migrants and refugees work out exactly where in the world they are, by which time – since the fee is nearly always paid up front – there is little they can do. If they have avoided ending up adrift in a leaky boat with no food and water, that is already a bonus.

UNHCR has set up a system, using volunteers in 10 key Caribbean locations, to try and provide protection for such people of concern to the agency among the thousands every year who take the northward passage towards the United States along overlapping, winding maritime routes. They will be among the

topics to be discussed at a regional conference on mixed migration and refugee protection, opening on Thursday in the Costa Rican capital of San José,

Most of those heading northwards are from within the Caribbean region or from South and Central America, but a smaller number arrive from other continents, including West Africans crossing the Atlantic, and refugees fleeing from conflict or persecution in places like Iraq, Somalia and Sri Lanka and trying to reach North America from the south.

During periods of political conflict or unrest in certain Caribbean states themselves, these figures have sometimes risen into the tens of thousands. US Coastguard statistics on the intercepted and returned only tell part of the story.

Nobody is keeping an accurate count of the number of people who succumb to storms and other hazards en route. In 2008 and 2009, more than 15 maritime incidents involving loss of life were recorded, with at least 150 confirmed deaths and some 120 more lost at sea, with women and children among the victims.

Dominicans, Cubans and Haitians consistently dominate the mixed flows of migrants and refugees heading north. But the dizzying variety of routes and transit points, and the growing diversity of nationalities involved, reveal a far more complex picture.

While the majority of those in transit are migrants, small numbers of refugees are mixed with them and the new arrivals are straining what are sometimes weak asylum systems. Reception facilities on the islands are geared more towards paying guests than responding to the needs of weather-beaten, dehydrated migrants. Language barriers and socio-cultural differences generate unfamiliar challenges for government officials and locals.

Refugees are as likely to find themselves intercepted, detained, presumed to be economic migrants and promptly deported as they are to be admitted to a national asylum system. And even for those few admitted, recognition rates in the Caribbean are uniformly low.

Under such circumstances, effective partnerships are essential to ensure minimum levels of protection for refugees. To this end, UNHCR has set up a network of honorary liaison volunteers to undertake essential protection work on a pro bono basis in 10 key locations around the Caribbean.

Hailing from all walks of life, these dedicated volunteers include the heads of national Red Cross societies, university lecturers and legal aid workers. They have been filling some of the gaps which UNHCR cannot hope to cover with its own small roving team operating out of Washington.

Partnership arrangements with non-governmental organizations in Belize, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are another vital piece in the protection jigsaw that now extends across the Caribbean.

At the regional level, cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on a seminar series on mixed migration and protection in the Caribbean has provided a platform for Caribbean states to exchange ideas on strengthening collaborative responses to migration, refugee protection and trafficking.

The regional conference in Costa Rica, meanwhile, will provide new opportunities for Caribbean states to interact with North American and Latin American counterparts facing similar challenges. The objective for all is to provide effective protection to refugees who arrive on their shores and humane solutions for thousands of migrant people.

By Grainne O'Hara in Miami, United States

Many of the Hmong living in the highlands of Laos took part in the war that engulfed Laos in the 1960s and 1970s. When the Pathet Lao came to power in 1975, many tens of thousands of Lao Hmong fled to Thailand seeking asylum, and large numbers were resettled in Western countries, mostly in the United States.

The situation of the Hmong today is very different from what it was in the 1970s, but the Nong Khai group are part of the legacy left by a troubled past. Originally 147 refugees, they were rounded up for deportation and transferred on 08 Dec. 2006 to the Nong Khai immigration detention centre on the Mekong River border with Laos where they have been held since. With babies born in detention, the number now stands at 158.

Four countries – the U.S., Australia, Canada and the Netherlands – have offered resettlement places to the refugees, and we believe they should be allowed to leave Thailand for resettlement. They have not committed any crime, and their detention serves no purpose. We believe that a solution for this group will not only respond to an urgent humanitarian need but also help turn one of the final pages in the refugee history of the Hmong in Thailand.