World Refugee Day, June 20, 2003

posted: June 20, 2003

New York, NY

The focus of this year’s World Refugee Day, June 20, is refugee youth. Of the more than 40 million refugees and internally displaced worldwide — uprooted by conflict, oppression or persecution — at least 50 percent are children and adolescents. While the rights and needs of young children in emergency and conflict situations have received significant attention for some time, the rights of displaced adolescents have largely been ignored.

Refugee and internally displaced adolescents face distinct challenges. The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children has documented that adolescents affected by armed conflict are more likely than younger children to: be recruited into military service; miss out on education; be sexually abused, abducted and held as sexual slaves; contract sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS; and require reproductive health care. Many adolescents assume adult responsibilities before they are prepared, as heads of household, principal wage-earners and teen parents. Few experience a true childhood.

As one of the leading advocacy and expert resource organizations for refugee and displaced women, children and adolescents, the Women’s Commission works to ensure that their rights are respected and that any abuses are brought to the attention of the international community. In honor of World Refugee Day, we strongly urge the Editorial Page to address the plight of refugee and internally displaced adolescents and to consider some key concerns:

• Few programs or policies exist that specifically target the needs of refugee and internally displaced adolescents. Despite the fact that we know more now than ever before about the problems refugee and internally displaced adolescents face, little has been done to protect their basic rights. The few model programs that have been established to address a range of rights violations against these adolescents have produced positive results. But these programs need to be systematic and have the support of governments and humanitarian agencies to effectively address rights violations.
• In almost all situations, refugee and internally displaced girls are worse off than boys. They are more likely to miss out on education and health care, to be heads of household and to be left out of child soldier demobilization programs despite their large numbers in fighting forces. They are more likely to suffer sexual violence and exploitation by combatants, humanitarian workers and peacekeepers. Their leadership is underrepresented in youth groups and organizations working to support their own protection and well-being. Few of the programs established for youth target the protection needs of adolescent girls.
• lack of services for adolescent girls undermines their ability to survive, care for others and assist in the recovery of their communities. Without adequate access to education, health care — particularly reproductive health care — protection from violence, and participation in decision-making, adolescent girls cannot help themselves, nor can they take part in the rebuilding of their communities. Their input is vital and must not be sidelined.
• The failure to support the capacities and strengths of refugee and internally displaced adolescents not only leads to further rights violations, it also undermines their community’s ability to sustain peace and foster development. Young people have tremendous resilience and capacity for constructive change. But when these abilities are unsupported and neglected, young people remain ill-equipped to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, child soldiering, harmful child labor, sexual abuse and exploitation. Girls of all ages lag behind in opportunities for personal and socio-economic development and face enormous gender-based violence.

The support of young people’s rights and abilities is not only an obligation, it’s good policy. In today’s conflicts, young people are too often coerced into fighting, but they are also the key to sustainable peace. Young people want to help themselves, their families and their communities, but they’re too often given little hope for the future, and see violence as their only way to survive. By ensuring that their basic needs are met and that they have adequate educational opportunities and access to health care, among other services, the international community can go a long way to giving a voice to a too-often forgotten group who have much to offer the world.

Passage of the Women and Children in Armed Conflict Protection Act of 2003, introduced in May by Senator Joe Biden, is one concrete way the U.S. can help support programs for refugee and internally displaced adolescents. The bill would ensure that the U.S. government makes the protection of women and children a priority in all stages of conflict. Among its provisions, the bill creates a $45 million annual Women and Children’s Protection Fund for initiatives to prevent, detect and respond to gender-based violence and exploitation in armed conflict.