Links to UN and NGO websites and documents illustrating the role of women in conflict and peacebuilding.
Women and girls can be especially vulnerable to abuse in mass displacement situations.
A programme aimed at promoting the empowerment and economic independence of female refugees.
These concerns vary from context to context, but there are some cross-cutting issues.
Targeted initiatives to empower women in post-conflict societies
Related news stories to Unit plan for ages 15-18 in Civic Education: Refugee women
Photos by Sebastião Salgado.
Learn about WLL; what we do, how we work and how to join us.
Published October 2008
By ensuring participation in decision-making and strengthening their self-reliance.
Held in Geneva, 20-22 June 2001
UN agencies, NGOs, grassroots organizations and private-public institutions are included.
This Handbook describes some of the protection challenges faced by women and girls of concern to UNHCR and outlines various strategies to be adopted with partners to tackle these challenges.
First edition, published January 2008
United Nations Development Fund for Women: Working for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality.
Introduction, general, the basic principle: mainstreaming/integration, organizational goals, policy objectives, operational objectives.
An assessment of ten years of implementation
Report also available in French on UNHCR's French website here. Read more about the meeting here.
"A Practical Guide to Empowerment" – UNHCR series produced by the Refugee Women/Gender Equality Unit to demonstrate and disseminate successful gender mainstreaming practices.
Safe motherhood initiatives are important to improve the health of displaced women.
Related Internet Links on Reproductive Health
Further information on reproductive health can be found on the following websites (external links)
Teaching About Refugees, Civic Education
Refugees are a painful living reminder of the failure of societies to exist in peace. People should be able to lead productive and independent lives in their home communities. Sadly, they are sometimes forced to flee because of abuse, violations of their rights and various forms of social breakdown, including war. These issues are linked to concepts such as justice, equality, tolerance, freedom, minority rights and the formation of community. Refugees can be the subject of work units on human rights, nationalism, racism, immigration, persecution and war.
| 9-11 year olds |
Refugee Children
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| 12-14 year olds |
Refugee Teenagers
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| 15-18 year olds |
Refugee Women
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The following links are intended to enable participants to understand and navigate through the complex topic of challenges to persons of concern in cities and urban settings.
Key findings of the GNA pilot survey, 2008
- 30 percent of needs are not being met
- A third of unmet needs are for basic needs and essential services
Measures are needed to improve:
- Food security and nutrition
- Health
- Access to clean water - construction or rehabilitation of wells
- Sanitation - construction or rehabilitation of latrines
- Distribution of non-food items
- Access to education - subsidies to students, school supplies, extra schools or classrooms, more teachers
To ensure better protection we will need:
- Training and technical support to governments
- Improved and ensured access to asylum procedures
- Enhanced reception facilities and procedures
- Documentation
- Border monitoring
- Strengthened community security measures
- To support justice mechanisms
To improve prevention and response to sexual abuse and violence we will need to:
- Provide firewood or fuel alternative
- Strengthen child protection programmes
- Enhance reporting and follow-up
- Establish safe houses
- Expand opportunities for women's self-reliance
Darfuri Refugees in Chad: No end in Sight
Colombia: Assisting the Internally Displaced
Portraits of Darfur's Refugees
Zimbabweans in South Africa
While Zimbabwe's main political rivals have agreed to hold power-sharing talks, there are continued reports of instability and violence in the country. The flow of Zimbabweans seeking asylum in neigbouring South Africa is growing, rather than ebbing. The UN refugee agency reports that there are more and more women and children joining the exodus.
Refugee Women: A Step Forward
This year International women's day focuses on the economic, social and political achievements of women.Yet each day millions of women around the world struggle to make ends meet. Nowhere is situation more acute than in those countries recovering from conflict. Here's the story of how one group of women is striving for their own economic independence in the hope that one day it will help them return to south Sudan.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Life in Limbo
In the continuing violence in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, women and children are often caught in the crossfire. While the camps for the displaced offer some security for single mothers like Fatuma Kapuweli, she fears for her children's safety and welfare.
