PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN HUMANITARIAN SETTINGS

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The full range of violations of the rights of women and girls must be addressed by all international actors. Women’s security is strongly linked to the integrity of their rights, yet we are still far from embracing gender equality as an organizing principle to humanitarian interventions.


Key messages

  • Humanitarians, development workers, the international and regional human rights system, and the interventions of our peace and security actors must address the full range of violations of the rights of women and girls protected by international humanitarian, refugee and human rights law, including, but not limited to, their right to life and physical integrity.
  • Women’s rights to education, to health, to land and productive assets, and rights of participation, decision-making and leadership in village or community matters are strongly linked to women’s security.
  • Increased attention has been paid to violence against women and girls, particularly sexual violence in conflict, resulting in greater visibility, high-level advocacy, and the development of technical tools. However, too little funding is allocated to programming and services for survivors.
  • We are still far from genuinely embracing gender equality as an organizing principle of our humanitarian work, and this undermines the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance.

Facts and figures

  • Prioritizing women in food distribution is strongly correlated with greater dietary diversity and, in some cases, a 37 percent lower prevalence of hunger.
  • The inclusion of women in water and infrastructure committees can make women and girls 44 percent less likely to walk more than 60 minutes each way to access drinking water.
  • The ten worst performing countries on maternal mortality are all either conflict or post-conflict countries, and girls’ net enrolment rate in primary education in these contexts is 17 points below the global rate.
  • Currently 27 countries across the world have laws that discriminate against women in their ability to confer nationality to their children, leading to statelessness, particularly in conflict settings.

Key recommendations

  • Gender equality and women’s human rights must be both a focus area of the World Humanitarian Summit and be integrated throughout the other themes.
  • Expressly mandate that all programmes adopt and apply the gender marker and relevant IASC guidance on gender and gender-based violence throughout the entire project cycle, and require it in all funding applications.
  • Current levels of approximately 1 percent funding for local women’s organizations, including women’s human rights defenders, should be increased until they reach at least 5 percent in the next three years, before setting progressively more ambitious targets in the following years.
  • Fund the establishment of an independent monitoring mechanism run by women’s civil society groups and women’s human rights defenders to track the performance on gender equality of humanitarian assistance (e.g. collection of sex-disaggregated data and gender-sensitive analysis to the systematic application of the gender marker and the engagement of local women).
  • Ensure that UN Women is a member of all relevant high-level inter-agency forums on peace and security and humanitarian response, including the IASC and the Senior Advisory Group on peace and security.
  • Commit to creating a humanitarian workforce that is 50 percent women and 100 percent trained in gender equality programming and women’s rights.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  • Remove discriminatory laws and regulations that impede full equality in accessing basic rights and services during and after conflict—including the rights to life, health, education, property and livelihood—and remove discriminatory laws and regulations that impede full equality in accessing basic rights and services, including the right to nationality.
  • Ensure that preparations for and outcomes of the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit have gender equality and women’s human rights as a focus area as well as integrated throughout the other themes.
  • Expressly mandate that all programmes adopt and apply the Gender Marker and relevant IASC guidance on gender and gender-based violence interventions in humanitarian settings throughout the entire project cycle and require it in all funding applications.
  • Increase current levels of targeted funding for women’s and girls’ programming to a minimum of 15 per cent. Current levels of approximately 1 per cent funding for local women’s organizations, including women’s human rights defenders, should be increased until they reach at least 5 per cent in the next three years, before setting progressively more ambitious targets in the following years. Funding for core operations, advocacy and capacity building should match funding for projects.
  • Fund the establishment of an independent monitoring mechanism run by women’s civil society groups and women’s human rights defenders to track the compliance of humanitarian assistance with normative frameworks and standards and international human rights law as well as performance on gender equality—from the collection of sex-disaggregated data and gendersensitive analysis to the systematic application of the Gender Marker and the engagement of local women.
  • Invest in translating all relevant tools on sexual and reproductive health and prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence into local languages to ensure local engagement and sustainability. Translations and long-term capacity building should be prioritized over the repetitive production of new tools, strategies, guidelines and advocacy campaigns from capitals in donor countries.
  • Commit to create a humanitarian workforce that is 50 per cent women and 100 per cent trained in gender equality programming and the protection of women’s human rights.
  • Ensure that UN Women is a member of all relevant high-level inter-agency forums on peace and security and humanitarian response, including the IASC and the Senior Advisory Group on peace and security, to ensure a gender perspective is mainstreamed throughout the UN’s response in conflict and emergencies.
  • Ensure that all global humanitarian and local health-care workers are trained in basic life-saving sexual and reproductive health care, in accordance with international human rights standards, as well as emergency response for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, including emergency contraception and abortion/post-abortion services. Increased investment must be made in local health systems’ ability to provide quality sexual and reproductive health and care for survivors and to put in place referral pathways to specialist care in all fragile settings.
  • Ensure that women affected by humanitarian crises, including refugees, internally displaced and stateless women, are supported to participate meaningfully and equally in community decisionmaking, in leadership roles and in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian interventions. Obstacles to their participation should be addressed within programme design.