This issue brief focuses on the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies, and how it addresses the linkages between gender inequality and gender-based violence (GBV).

In 2017, the Women’s Refugee Commission co-coordinated and facilitated four workshops that brought together local humanitarian and non-humanitarian actors — who have a role in mitigating GBV for urban refugees — to share new tools, strategies, case studies, and positive practices for urban GBV prevention.

This training package, developed by WRC, provides an overview of research findings and engages participants in strategies for applying an urban-specific lens to GBV prevention and response.

Previous research has demonstrated that refugees with intellectual disabilities living in urban areas face added risks of violence, including GBV, due to the breakdown in protective peer networks, and exclusion activities which might confer access to age- and gender-appropriate information and education. Throughout 2015 and 2016, the WRC partnered with a local organization called the Lebanese Association for Self-Advocacy (LASA) to strengthen protective peer networks for refugees with disabilities living in Beirut. Sessions supported refugees with disabilities living in Beirut to reflect on safety issues, including how these might be different for women, men, girls and boys with disabilities, as well as how these might relate to nationality/country of origin. These sessions also helped to strengthen their protective peer networks in the community. For more information, please see the video entitled Meaningful Programs for Engaging Refugees with Disabilities in Lebanon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYGNk1RuZ-o

In Kampala, the WRC partnered with Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), an organization that provides integrated SRH and GBV services to Ugandans, including Ugandan sex workers. The goal was to expand their services to be inclusive of refugee women. This case study outlines two different interventions that were conducted: (1) a free mobile health clinic that went to refugee neighborhoods and provided a range of GBV and medical services, and (2) a peer education program conducted with refugee women engaged in sex work in Uganda—both in Kampala and in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement—that was designed to address information, service, and support gaps affecting these women’s health and safety.

Refugee women and girls are at an especially high risk of GBV because they exist at the intersections of being women and refugees, leading to increased social isolation and discrimination. In 2016, WRC partnered with Asylum Access Ecuador to develop a program to mitigate GBV risks and improve response to GBV cases among refugee adolescent girls. This case study describes the activities conducted to accomplish this, including: (1) strengthening the GBV referral pathway; (2) conducting an adolescent program to build protective peer networks, build girls’ capacities by improving self-worth; and (3) enabling the integration of refugees and Ecuadorians.

Transwomen refugees face extreme violence and discrimination in the cities where they seek refuge. In 2016, WRC partnered with MOSAIC, a Lebanese human rights organization, to support Syrian transwomen refugees living in Beirut. This case study describes how tailored activities brought refugee and Lebanese transwomen together to: provide psyschosocial support; build skills and capacities for activism and risk reduction; and strengthen peer networks.

In Delhi, WRC partnered with Don Bosco, a UNHCR implementing partner, to launch a series of pilot activities that would be responsive to the particular GBV risks and service gaps facing refugees living in Delhi. One of the cornerstone activities was the creation of Urban GBV Task Forces. These Task Forces were conceived by Don Bosco as a way of instituting community-led GBV prevention and response efforts. This case study outlines the different activities the Task Forces engaged in, such as: workshops on GBV topics; bringing learning to their communities; building rapport with local police precincts; and providing targeted assistance to at-risk community members.

Throughout 2016, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) partnered with local organizations in urban humanitarian settings, for the purpose of piloting GBV activities that would be at once innovative, community-driven, and responsive to evidence on local GBV risks and effective risk mitigation strategies. Four pilots were undertaken, in Delhi, India; Beirut, Lebanon; Santo Domingo, Ecuador; and Kampala, Uganda. Each Urban GBV Case Study presents an example of an urban-specific GBV risk prevention and/or response strategy. Each illustrates, in a different way, the untapped potential that exists within both refugee communities and host-communities, for mitigating urban refugees’ immediate and long-term GBV risks.

In times of war and its aftermath, legal structures that traditionally protect women and children, including formal and informal justice systems and respect for the rule of law, break down leaving them vulnerable to abuse including but not limited to rape, early and forced marriage and domestic violence. The guide summarizes an assessment of War Child Canada’s three-pronged legal protection model was implemented with South Sudanese refugees in Northern Uganda and uses it to identify the most important lessons for ensuring legal protection mechanisms are in place at the onset of an emergency.

This Guidance Note sets forth concrete actions for working with refugees engaging in sex work. The Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) developed this Guidance Note in partnership with the Organization for Gender Empowerment and Rights Advocacy (OGERA), to raise awareness and initiate a conversation about how we ensure the protection of and access to vital services for refugees engaged in sex work. A rights-based approach to working with this population calls for providing them with a range of information, services, and support options, while reducing the stigma and discrimination they encounter.

In the heart of Europe, systematic problems expose women to abuse and exploitation.