On World Refugee Day, We Must Honor the 75-Year-Old Promise to Protect Women and Girls

Washington, DC — Ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) released the following statement on the dangers facing the world’s displaced women and girls.

“The right to seek safety is a fundamental human right, and a world that protects refugee women and girls is safer for all of us. For 75 years, the Refugee Convention has promised protection to everyone forced to flee,” said Xanthe Scharff, President and CEO of the Women’s Refugee Commission. “Yet for the millions of women and girls forced from their homes by conflict and disaster, that promise has never been fully honored. Instead, they face new dangers in their search for safety: sexual and gender-based violence, lost maternal health care, and higher risks of trafficking and exploitation.

“On this World Refugee Day, we call on governments to recommit to their collective promise: to protect refugee women and girls, to ensure they can access the rights and services they need to build healthy, safe, and self-reliant lives, and to ensure their leadership and voice are included in the decisions that shape the future of protection.”

On June 25, WRC will convene a panel of refugee women for a discussion on what refugee protection means to them, and what the future of protection looks like for refugee women. You can register for that conversation here.

Background

WRC partners with displaced women and girls so their expertise informs humanitarian programming, policy, and funding. Through WRC’s Humanitarian Futures Fellowship, which centers the leadership and knowledge of displaced women, fellows generate research that challenges conventional humanitarian approaches and advances inclusive, feminist alternatives.

WRC documents the risks and harms facing displaced women and girls through research and firsthand testimony, which it leverages to advocate for their rights and well-being. Recent publications include:

• WRC’s In Her Own Words series features first-person testimonies of displaced women and girls surviving in the world’s most severe conflict and crisis zones, spotlighting the disproportionate impact of war and displacement on their lives.
• Interviews with Sudanese women reveal the diverse experiences of young women trying to access healthcare, education, and safe livelihoods in displacement.
• WRC’s review of US foreign aid cuts finds comprehensive evidence that the cuts have led to women dying in childbirth, gender-based violence survivors losing lifesaving care, and girls being forced out of school.