[From Local Action/ Global Change: Learning About the Human Rights of Women and Girls (by Julie Mertus, with Mallika Dutt and Nancy Flowers; New York: Center for Women’s Global Leadership and UNIFEM, 1997]

 

 

 HUMAN RIGHTS OF REFUGEE,

DISPLACED AND  MIGRANT WOMEN

 

 

OBJECTIVES

 

The exercises and background information contained in this chapter will enable participants to work towards the following objectives:

 

•     Understand the distinction between “refugees,” “displaced people,” and “migrants”

 

•     Explain why women and children are more likely to become displaced and why migrant, refugee and displaced women may be particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses

 

•         Identify the rights of migrant, refugee and displaced women, and understand the importance of international protection of these rights and the regulations of obligations of receiving countries, as well as of countries of origin

           

•         Develop ways in which nongovernmental organizations and other social institutions could better assist women refugees, migrants, and other uprooted women

           

•         Describe the connections between economic forces and the exploitation of migrant women

 

•     Recognize the importance of including refugee and displaced women in the design and implementation of humanitarian aid programs

     

•         Critically monitor the role and attitude of governments toward the rights of migrant, refugee and displaced women.

 

 

GETTING STARTED:  THINKING ABOUT UPROOTED WOMEN

 

The number of uprooted people has risen dramatically over the past decade.  People leave their homes for a variety of reasons:

 

•         War and other forms of violence, political unrest and instability:  For example, since civil war began in Somalia in 1991, approximately a quarter of the population has fled.  300,000 of these refugees sought safety in Kenya, where hundreds of women have been raped in camps in the north eastern provinces.  (Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1995, p. 120.)

 

•         Human rights violations:  Women who experience abuse or are activists face threats and violence which forces them to flee to save their lives.

 

•         Poor economic conditions and/or lack of good jobs: Globally, women are now the majority of migrant workers, who must look for work outside their country.

 

•         The failure of  the market to provide for sustainable development:  When Central and Eastern Europe and the newly independent states in the region radically shifted from a controlled communist system, where employment was guaranteed, to a free market, de-regulated economy, many skilled and educated women workers were unable to find jobs providing a living wage and faced state-condoned discrimination against women in the workplace.

 

•         Severe forms of discrimination or persecution of family members:  For example, the criminalization in most countries of lesbians and homosexuals; arrest and harassment of even distant family members of political activists and dissidents.

 

•         Persecution due to religion, race or ethnic group:  For example, growing virulent anti-Semitism against Jews in the former Soviet Union, against Roma or "gypsies" in Central and Eastern Europe, against Muslims in Burma and against Christians in Sudan.

 

•         Natural disasters: For example floods, earthquakes and other disasters that force millions to relocate in search of shelter, safety and work.

 

Any one can become uprooted, especially women. Over 80% of the world’s refugees are women and children.  Current estimates of the global population of refugees who flee to another country range from 15 to 20 million, with an additional 20 million people displaced from their homes within their own countries.  In 1985, over 106 million immigrants were recorded in the census of countries to which they had migrated, with women comprising half the immigrants to developed countries and 44% of migrants to developing countries.  (United Nations, 1995, p. 45) However, the actual number of women refugees and migrants is considerably underestimated.  For instance, women involved in the sex trade or other illegal or unrecognized forms of employment, such as garment or domestic workers, are not included in official statistics.

 

The typical refugee or displaced person is a woman with young children, yet until recently few humanitarian aid groups addressed the special circumstances of women.  For example, refugee kits usually include materials for men’s needs; anything for women, such as sanitary pads and tampons, are considered “extra” or “special.”  Refugee women are especially vulnerable to rape and sexual torture.  In some cases men may assault refugee women who refuse to wear traditional dress or who live apart from men. Despite the overwhelming majority of women among refugee populations and among war and torture victims, gender does not appear at all in the main conventions concerning refugees.

 

The typical migrant woman is between the age of 20-40, married with children who remain behind in her home country. She goes abroad in order to seek a better life for her family.  Studies have found that she tends to be better educated than women who remain, but is unable to find a job matching her skills of education level. (“Young and Older Women Migrate.”  Popline, vol. 18, May-June, 1996)

 

Strength and Vulnerability:  The Beijing Platform for Action and Refugee Women

 

The Platform for Action calls for international attention to 4 realities about refugee women:

 

•         The increased burden of responsibility that women refugees face "as a result of conflict, unexpectedly cast as sole manager of household, sole parent, and caretaker of elder relatives" (paragraph 133);

 

•         The particular vulnerability of women to gender-specific violations of human rights while fleeing, or relocating across borders, including rape and systematic rape (paragraph 135);

 

•         "Women often experience difficulty in some countries of asylum in being recognized as refugees when the claim is based on [gender-related] persecution" (paragraph 136);

 

•         The strength and resilience that women refugees display in the face of displacement is not acknowledged.  Women's voices need to be represented in policy making that affects them, including in processes to prevent conflicts before they result in the need for communities to flee (paragraph 137).

 

 

Exercise 1:  Packing Your Suitcase                                                 

 

Objective:       To understand criteria for granting political asylum

 

Time:              30 minutes

 

Materials:      Paper and pens

Optional: chart paper and markers

 

1.  Read the following to the group: 

 

You are a teacher in the country of L.  Your partner "disappears," probably because of his attempts to form a trade union.  During the next months you received several threatening phone calls, and your name appeared in a newspaper article listing suspected subversives.  When you arrived home from school tonight, you found an anonymous letter threatening your life.  You decide you must flee at once and seek political asylum elsewhere.

 

2.      List:

 

Divide the participants into small groups and instruct them to “pack their bags”by listing what they would take with them when they flee.  They may take only what they can carry, and only 8 categories of things.

 

3.  Discuss:

 

Ask each small group to read their list aloud.  At the end of each reading, declare either “Asylum denied” or “Asylum granted.”  Ask participants how they think those judgments were made.

 

Then read the definition of a refugee from the 1951 Convention (below) or write it on a piece of chart paper.  Explain that according to this definition, only those who included either the newspaper clipping or the letter would be likely to prove the “well-founded fear of persecution” required to obtain refugee status.

 

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENTS AND THE REFUGEE CONVENTION

 

A government’s obligations to refugees are found in the main international refugee convention, the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol.  This Convention defines a refugee as a person who:

•     has a well-founded fear of persecution;

•       fears persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion; and

•     is outside the country of origin.

 

This definition is very important because it guides many countries’ and organizations’ treatment of refugees.  Refugees who can show they meet these three criteria - commonly called “Convention Refugees” - are often entitled to more benefits and greater protection under international law.  Thus, whether this definition is agreed with or not, it should be understood and applied.  Although the convention does not explicitly list gender as a reason, women advocates are developing ways to apply it to cases involving violence against women and other forms of gender-based persecution.. (Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (1966))

 

Defining Terms

 

International law and international organizations make a distinction between migrants, refugees and internally displaced people.  

 

"Refugees" are people who are forced to leave their home country because of fear of persecution based on certain limited grounds. 

 

"Displaced people" are people who leave their homes to flee persecution, but who stay within their home country. 

 

"Migrants" are people who leave for economic reasons or for reasons not covered under the limited definition of “refugee.”

 

Women in all three categories face common problems, such as discrimination and lack of legal autonomy.  However, their status differs in several significant ways. Migrant women may be legally protected in their home country whereas refugee and displaced women are not.  In addition, international conventions, however inadequate, exist to protect refugees; but the international convention on migrants has been signed by few countries, and no conventions exist to protect displaced persons. Moreover, in the case of internally displaced people, the very government that has caused their displacement often has the primary responsibility for their protection. 

 

 

THE REFUGEE DEFINITION, STEP BY STEP

 

Step One:  Outside Country of Origin

 

This is the easiest step.  The person applying for refugee status must show that he or she has fled across national borders.  If she left her home but remained in her country, she is not considered a refugee, but a "displaced person.”  Because no international conventions exist to protect the rights of displaced people, those who cross national borders are in a much better position under international law.

 

Step Two:  Well-Founded Fear of Persecution 

 

Part A:  Showing "Persecution"

 

There is no universal definition of what constitutes “persecution.”  The individual applying for refugee status must argue that she herself faces persecution or that she has a legitimate fear of persecution because of the experiences of other people in similar situations.  The refugee officer or adjudicator must decide when bad treatment is sufficient to be deemed “persecution.”

 

Defining persecution is not simple.  Torture definitely is considered persecution.  The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Human Rights: A Compilation of International Instruments. (ST/HR/1/Rev. 5 (Vol. I, Pt.1)) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in Human Rights: A Compilation of International Instruments. (ST/HR/1/Rev. 5 (Vol. I, Pt.1)) prohibit torture. There is a strong move to have rape defined as torture and therefore a form of persecution. Similarly, forced pregnancy can be considered persecution or even a form of slavery. Sex discrimination is less clearly persecution.  According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) handbook on refugees, discrimination may constitute persecution if it leads to "consequences of a substantially prejudicial nature for the person concerned."  This definition opens the door for arguing that systematic sex discrimination can constitute persecution.

 

Part B:  Showing Relation to the State

 

Persecution must be an act committed by the state or by someone acting as an agent of the state.  If a private person commits the harmful act, this will only constitute “persecution” under the refugee definition if you can show a strong connection between the private person and the state.  For example, when a mob of private civilians stones a woman for living apart from men, this violence would constitute “persecution” under the refugee definition only if the mob was carrying out government orders or knew of the plan and did nothing to prevent it.  According to UNHCR, state action may exist where one section of the population inflicts serious harm on another part of the population and the authorities are unwilling or unable to prevent it.

 

Step Three -- Persecution Grounds

 

It is not enough to show a fear of persecution; the fear must be based on specified "persecution grounds.”  This means that the persecution must be connected to reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.  No other reasons are included under the statute. 

 

Note that gender is excluded.  Some activists are seeking to explicitly add gender as a grounds for persecution.  Others oppose this move as unnecessary because women usually can claim refugee status based on other grounds that are already listed.  Another argument is that gender can be read into the existing refugee definition, for example, fitting women into the category "social group." 

 

 

Women Fleeing Violence                                                                                          

 

When she experienced severe domestic violence, Maria Olea left Chile in 1988 with her two young children and fled to the US because the dictatorial government did not support or protect battered women.  However, as an undocumented immigrant, she was unable or afraid to access the services critical to the survival of a domestic violence survivor and her children.  In her testimony to the Global Tribunal on Violations of Women’s Human Rights during the UN Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993, she urged that the United Nations recommend that domestic violence be accepted as grounds for asylum.  “In that way," she stated, “we will save the lives of many women and children.”  (Niamh Reilly, 1994, p. 68.)

                                                                                 

In October 1990, Aminata Diop, a 22-year old woman from Bamako, Mali, fled to France to escape undergoing female genital mutilation, a painful and dangerous circumcision practised in many communities in Africa and the Middle East.  She described the ostracism she felt, “I could not return to the village because I did not obey my parents.  No person would dare look at me.  I went to the house of my friend.  Her sister, touched by my plight, helped me to go to France.  [There] I felt very alone.  I was rejected by everyone.” (Ibid., p. 23.)

 

 

Exercise 2:   Is She a Refugee?                   

 

Objective:       To clarify qualifications for refugee status

 

Time:              60 minutes

 

Materials:      Copies of Case Study:  Persecution in the Country of Marlandia

Chart paper and markers

 

                                              Case Study :  Persecution in Marlandia

There is no war in Marlandia, but women face severe discrimination.  Women who choose to live apart from men are stoned.  By law women are forced to wear long black veils in public and are forbidden to drive a car.  By custom, they cannot travel or appear in public without the presence of a man. Women who break this rule risk being sexually attacked, and once they are raped or molested, the women are charged with adultery and imprisoned.  Employers seldom hire women and often fire them to make room for men.  A rape of a woman by her husbanded is not a crime under Marlandia law.

 

A woman from Marlandia who has been raped and battered by her husband has fled her country and is seeking asylum elsewhere.

 

1.  Role Play:

Read the role play aloud or hand out copies. Assign one participant the role of a woman and another the role of the asylum officer. At any point, another participant can relieve either of the actors by tapping them on the should and taking over the role.  In this way several participants can play.

 

Ask a third participant to take notes on each claim that is identified during the course of the exercise, preferably on a large sheet of paper posted in front of the group. 

 

The woman presents her case to the officer.

 

1.      Discuss:

 

Using the list of points made by the woman, go over each of her grounds for receiving refugee status.  The discussion should include most of the following points:

 

•  Women stoned to death for living apart from men.  What evidence is needed to show persecution?  Must the woman show that she herself was stoned?  Must she wait to be stoned?  What is the "persecution ground" (the reason for persecution)?  Gender?  Yes, if gender is considered a social group.  Political opinion?  Maybe, if you can call wanting to live apart from men a political opinion.  But what if she is stoned by her family or members of her religious group, and not by state authorities?  Would it make a difference if the authorities knew about the practice and did nothing to stop it?

 

•  Forced to wear long black veils and forbidden to drive, vote or own property.  Here, since the law mandates this practice, the connection to the state is clear.  But the practices may not be grave enough to constitute persecution.  Do you think the practices are persecution?  If so, what are the reasons for persecution?  Gender? Political opinion? 

 

•  By custom women can't walk on the streets and those that do are attacked by mobs.  The women are then charged with adultery and harshly punished.  Is there “state action”?  How is the state involved here?  The fact that women cannot walk on the streets is regulated by practice and not by law, so there is no state action.  But there is state action once the women are charged with adultery.  Court proceedings are always state action.  Will the woman succeed on her refugee claim here?  Some factors that the adjudicator of this case might consider are whether there is a pattern of such abuse, whether the woman has experienced it herself, and whether gender is seen as a social group or whether gender can be read into political opinion.

 

•  Employers not hiring women.  Is employment discrimination “bad enough” to constitute persecution?  This may be seen as a "purely economic issue" and not sufficient to constitute discrimination. 

 

•  Attack by her husband.  Can rape and other forms of attack by husbands constitute persecution?  Can you argue that there is “state action?”  How?  What additional information would you need?  States may view marital rape and abuses in the home as "private", not public matters, over which the state has no jurisdiction. Refugee law, like many other types of law, has difficulty with applying a public/private distinction.  Of course, when women are raped by their husbands at home, precisely what many women want is state interference, not state neglect.  State inaction in cases of marital rape may be considered action.  (See, Chapter 2, Women’s Human Rights in the Family.”)

 

Asylum Claims in Canada

 

The following are criteria used by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada to determine whether asylum should be granted in gender-based claims:

 

•     What are the particular circumstances that give rise to the claimant’s fear of persecution?

 

•     What are the general conditions in her country of origin, including the nature of oppressive laws imposed upon women?

 

•     What is the seriousness of the treatment feared by the claimant upon her return?

 

•     Does she fear persecution for one of more of the grounds in the Convention’s refugee definition?

 

•     If she returned home, would she be adequately protected?

 

•     Is her fear of persecution well-founded based on the above circumstances?

 

Based on these criteria, the IRB granted asylum in 1993 to a Bulgarian woman who suffered sustained and severe abuse from her estranged husband, who had worked for the Ministry of Interior and currently worked for the police.   The IRB also granted refugee status to a young Pakistani woman who was raped and impregnated by a political worker from a rival party, on the grounds that if she remained in Pakistan she would either likely be killed by her father to preserve the family honour, or prosecuted by the police for adultery as sexual assault claims are only accepted with a full confession from the perpetrator.

 

However, a Hindu Tamil woman from Malaysia who claimed harassment and fled because she couldn’t freely choose her own husband was denied asylum because the IRB ruled that while she faced discrimination and harassment, it did not amount to persecution.

 

(Speech delivered by Nurjehan Mawani, Chair, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, March 9, 1994)

 

 

WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES AS REFUGEES

 

Some of the concerns of refugee and displaced women include:

 

• Depression, despondency, and feelings of hopelessness.  Women who flee their homes for whatever reason do not usually expect to be gone for long.  As the days and months drag on, many women become increasingly depressed, and few have social services or counselling to help them. (Mertus, Julie, et al, The Suitcase:  Refugee's Voices from Bosnia and Croatia. University of California Press. 1997.) 

 

•  Breaks in human contact.  Uprooted women often lose contact with their communities and family members, particularly males.  They may be unable to find or  contact those closest to them.  They may have menfolk who have “disappeared” while in combat or in flight.  They might know where some of their friends and family members are but are unable to contact them due to practical or financial reasons.

 

•  Hostility, violence, and discrimination in host country or host region.  This may take the form of racism, economic discrimination, sexual harassment or sexual violence and other forms of abuse.  It can limit women’s ability to move outside their temporary homes, to provide for their families, or to find work.  Burmese refugees in Thailand, for example, are not allowed to send their children to school, and Thai homeowners are not willing to rent them rooms or houses.  (Marin, Leni and Blandina Lansang-de Mesa, eds. Women on the Move:  Proceedings of Workshop on Human Rights Abuses Against Immigrant & Refugee Women.  Family Violence Prevention Fund, 1993, p. 12.)

 

•  Lack of protection from violence and other forms of abuse and exploitation.  Uprooted women are particularly vulnerable to intimidation, sexual abuse and other forms of physical exploitation.  They are vulnerable at all stages:  in flight, in their country of refuge, and upon return to their home country. Unaccompanied women and girls are particularly at risk for sexual assault, often from the forces which are supposed to protect them.  Long term inhabitants of refugee camps are often lured into prostitution rings or made to perform sexual acts in return for food or favours such as an asylum hearing Human rights groups have documented cases of women refugees or migrants being raped or sexually assaulted by border guards or security forces.  (Human Rights are Women's Rights. London: Amnesty International, 1995, pp. 25-6; Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1995, p. 183.)

 

•  Inability to find meaningful work.  Some countries do not allow refugees to work legally, and women often do not have legal papers.  Other countries discourage employment or provide opportunities that do not fully utilize women’s skills.  As a result, refugee and displaced women often work in low-paid, exploitative jobs where employers take advantage of their illegal status.  For example, in Croatia, where 80% of the 380,000 refugees are women, they are not allowed to work, "thus confining refugee women to absolute dependency on inadequate humanitarian assistance." ("Status of Women's Rights in Croatia." Zagreb: B.a.B.e., Autumn 1994, p. 2.)

 

•  Changes in family relationships due to the uprooting.  Most women refugees are without male family support except from their young male children.  If the family is intact and a man is present, women must often deal with changes in male and female roles.  Often the man, who used to work outside the home, is now left without work or meaning for life.  Yet the woman continues to be productive: cooking, cleaning, taking care of children, shopping, and at times providing for all basic needs of the family.  This imbalance can lead men to alcoholism and domestic violence.  Many times the burden for women increases as their elderly relatives become more dependent on them. Parent/child relationships may also change.  Because children often possess better language skills in the new country, they may take on adult roles, such as negotiating with government agencies, humanitarian aid groups and asylum officials.  Parents may feel a loss of control and inadequacy when this happens.

 

•  Lack of access to basic items needed for daily life.  Women usually have the burden of feeding and clothing their families.  Also, humanitarian aid packages often do not provide for women’s needs, such as gynecological care, stockings, and cosmetics.  Groups who work with refugee women argue that such items are not a luxury:  if given the choice, women refugees may ask for them before other things ("Meeting the Health Care Needs of Women Survivors of the Balkan Conflict." The Centre for Reproductive Law and Policy, 1993.)

 

•  Lack of access to health care and other services.  Access to reproductive health care and contraception is crucial to a woman's well-being.  However, such services are scarce or non-existent in most refugee camps.  For example, members on a fact-finding mission to Sarajevo in October 1993 found that as "women of Sarajevo have been used to family planning programs and the Pill, but neither [were] available,” a very high rate of abortions were being performed in unsafe conditions by unqualified practitioners.  (Scott, Pippa and May Anne Schwalbe. "A Living Wall: Former Yugoslavia: Zagreb, Slavonski Brod & Sarajevo, October 3-18, 1993." Report to the Women's Commission for Refugee Women & Children, New York, p. 8.)

 

•  Inability to prove refugee status and insensitive asylum hearings.  Women who are persecuted because of their gender may have difficulty proving refugee status.  In addition, women who are victims of military attack may have a hard time proving they are victims of persecution rather than random violence.  Since some asylum officers still see rape and sexual violence as random offenses, soldier’s rape of a woman, for example, may be discounted even though rape in war is accepted as a violation of established international humanitarian law. Asylum officers often discount women’s experiences of conflict as being “not severe enough” to constitute persecution.  For example, some states give priority to survivors of concentration camps and to victims of state torture, categories that include more males. For this reason, although the majority of refugees are women, the vast majority of people who receive asylum are men.

 

•  Lack of recognition as independent beings with full legal capacity.  Sometimes a male head of household may migrate or receive asylum first.  Women who join their husbands then become dependent on him for their immigration or refugee status. Should the family break up, the woman could face deportation.  This policy often places battered women in especially difficult situations.  They may refrain from seeking help from law enforcement officials for fear of being deported or because of language or other cultural barriers.

 

 

Forced Repatriation

 

The decade of repatriation was inaugurated in 1992 by the UNHCR, during which period 10 million refugees, mostly women and children, were to be returned to their country of origin.  The implications of this for women refugees was described by Sima Wali at the Human Rights Conference in Vienna: "Refugee women...are ill-prepared to bear the daunting task of not only re-making their shattered lives, but participating in rebuilding their war-torn societies."  Many repatriated women have faced torture and persecution upon their return, or are stigmatized if they have been raped by enemy soldiers.  Additionally, if they are widowed, their children may be taken away by the husband’s family in order to ensure that any property or land remains with the male line.  Returning to countries where security is uncertain, women have no guarantees of protection and are often left out of policy-making decisions by the new government (Afkhami, Mahnaz. 1994.).   

 

Exercise 3:  Possible Intervention for Women Refugees   

 

Objective:       To develop interventions and actions that could be take to support women refugees

 

Time:              60 minutes

 

Materials:      Chart paper taped to wall and markers

Optional: Copies of “Scenarios of Hope” (below)

 

1.      Imagine/Draw:

 

Ask participants to make up a story of a refugee woman starting from her crossing the border of her home country.  This might be one group story or several stories prepared by small groups.  For example:

 

A young woman refugee arrives at a camp without her family.  In order to get enough food, she accepts an offer made by a guard to get her a "good job."  Instead of a good job, she finds herself working in a brothel where she isn't allowed to keep her wages.  She can't complain to the police because they are part of the racket.  Most customers refuse to wear condoms.  Ultimately, she contracts a sexually transmitted disease.

 

Once the story outline has been agreed upon, members of the group draw the different scenes of the story on the chart paper.

 

2.  Discuss:

 

Ask  the groups to list the action or service that could have helped the woman escape the spiral at different points in the story.  For example: "When the woman arrived in the refugee camp, she could either join a microenterprise to earn money for food or work with other refugee women to create one."  Or "In the brothel, a NGO conducting public health training workshops could educate her on how to protect herself or help her escape prostitution."  

 

Conclude the discussion with a summary presentation of each group’s story and suggested interventions.  Evaluate.  What can women do to help themselves and each other?  You might want to  supplement the discussion with some of the interventions in the box below.

 

Scenarios of Hope

 

Governments can advance the human rights of refugee women if they:

 

•  Involve refugee women in the design and implementation of all programs dealing with refugees.

 

•  Employ female protection officers and female community social workers to work with all women, to provide safe places for women to talk to one another, and to provide remedies for women who are victims of violence.

 

•  Offer gender-sensitive and culturally appropriate counselling to women victims.  This counselling should be conducted by trained, experienced counsellors, preferably from the refugees’ culture and/or community.

 

•  Support the operation of SOS hotlines and “safe houses” for women refugees, staffed where possible by women refugees and/or women counsellors from the refugees’ same culture and/or community.

 

•  Provide emergency resettlement to refugee women who may be particularly exposed to abuse.

 

•  Establish effective mechanisms for law enforcement to ensure that abusers are identified and prosecuted.

 

•  Ensure that refugee women are not forced to stay for long periods in closed camps or detention centres where they are more likely to be the victims of violence.

 

•  Include information about refugee women, preferably written by and with refugee women, in all educational activities carried out in refugee programs; include information about uprooted women in public media campaigns to combat abuse of and discrimination against refugee women.

 

•  Provide gender-sensitive training, for host country border guards, police, military units, asylum officers, aid personnel and others who come in contact with refugees and displaced persons.

 

•  Improve the design of refugee camps to promote greater security according to the needs voiced by refugee women.  Such measures could include better lighting, security patrols and special accommodations for single women, women heads of household and unaccompanied minors.

 

•  Place international staff that has received gender-sensitive training in border areas which refugee women must cross to enter countries of asylum as well as in reception centres, refugee camps and settlements. 

 

ADDRESSING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF MIGRANT WOMEN

 

The migration of workers in search of better jobs and higher income is attracting greater attention as the increasingly globalized economy facilitates the movement of capital, goods and people.  Powerful economic forces pull migrants to settle or go to work in a particular country.  Many countries actively recruit a cheap and unskilled labour force to perform tasks that their own citizens consider dirty, dangerous or degrading.  Until recently, men accounted for the majority of migrant workers, but women now outnumber men. 

 

The majority of women workers either perform "traditional" women's work like housekeeping and childcare, or end up in the burgeoning and lucrative trade in women and girls for the sex and pornography industry.  Many also work in low-paid, unskilled jobs in manufacturing, the garment industry, or agriculture.  According to Dr. Patricia Licuanan, Chair of the National Commission on the role of Filipino Women, who has studied the impact of domestic worker migration upon both receiving and sending countries, "domestic worker migration seems to be more beneficial to the host country than to the sending country, and benefits tend to be more economic in nature, while the costs are primarily social" (Licuanan, Patricia. 1994, pp. 103-15.)  (See Chapter 9, Women’s Human Rights: Rights in the Economy, for more discussion of migrant workers.)

 

Why do women leave home to work?

 

Some of the pressures that force women to leave their homes and countries to search for means to support themselves and their families include: 

 

•  Low status of women's work:  Women continue to be discriminated against and relegated to low paid employment with low status such as domestic work, prostitution, pornography, "mail order" brides, comfort women, and other low-paid, unskilled tasks.

 

•  Globalization of labour markets:  A multi-tier system of labour has developed, where more highly industrialized countries shift their manufacturing base to countries which offer lower labour costs or import that unskilled low wage labour to perform tasks which their own workers scorn.

 

•  Gender roles in culture and in family:  Studies show that migrant women gain new influence and status in their families as the primary breadwinner, but they also have little power over how that money is spent.  The stereotype of "subservient" and "exotic" Asian women make them attractive to foreign employers, as mail-order brides, and to sex traders and clients.  In Eastern Europe, many women who have found themselves the first fired from newly-privatized enterprises in the former communist states, have no option but to go abroad as traders, migrant workers and prostitutes.  Russian and Ukrainian women - "Natashas" - travel back and forth to Turkey to work as prostitutes.

 

•  Role of Sending governments: Some sending governments actively target, recruit and encourage their workers to go abroad; they regulate and benefit from fees and taxes collected as well as the remittances sent home, which save them from serving the needs of their citizens.  For example, the Philippine government, in order to earn much-needed hard currency and service foreign debt has, since the 1970s, explicitly encouraged and facilitated the export of labour to the Middle East, Europe, Japan and the US.  At present, approximately half a million Filipinos working abroad send home $2 billion annually.  These workers are the largest export earner in their country’s economy.  As further incentive, the government offers a one year tax break on money sent home.  Private and government agencies benefit from the exorbitant and usually illegal payments demanded from women seeking to go abroad.

 

Role of Receiving Governments:  Receiving governments benefit from the influx of cheap labour, which in some cases frees their educated women to join the workforce (in countries where that is allowed), absolves them from building a childcare system, and brings in revenue, as in the case of Singapore, where employers must pay a monthly fee of $300 to the government for a foreign household worker. 

 

(Villalba, May-an. 1993, pp. 9-23.; see also United Nations (2).

 

 

Exercise :  Push Pull Factors                        

 

Objective:       To identify the reasons that contribute to migration

 

Time:              30 minutes

 

Materials:      Chart paper and markers

 

1.      List:

 

Divide a sheet of paper in half, heading one "Pull Factors," the other "Push Factors."  The participants call out the reasons women might need to seek employment in another country and why a receiving country might need their labour. These might include:

 

PUSH

•     high rate of unemployment

•     lack of good jobs for educated  women

•     family needing support

•     desire to buy consumer goods

•     government needs foreign exchange

•       glamorization of living abroad/travelling

  

PULL

•     foreign government needing cheap   labour

•       demand for English-speaking workers

•     status symbol to have a "maid"

•     recruiters offering incentives

•       persuasive recruiters promising well-paid jobs

 

2.      Discuss:

 

•     Why are there more women migrant workers than men?

•     What are the underlying economic policies and assumptions of the sending and receiving countries?  Do they rely on women's labour because it is cheap?

•   Do any of these factors violate women’s human rights?

 

                                    From Victim to Advocate: A Migrant Worker’s Story

 

Teresita Cuizon, a widowed single mother worked as a seamstress in the Philippines and supported her two children.  Because she could not make ends meet on her income she took a job working as a chambermaid in a Gulf state which promised a salary of $400 per month.  When she got there, she was paid only $108. She was held captive by her employers, who took away her passport so she was unable to go anywhere without them.  She had to work long hours with no time off and was given only left-overs to eat.  Her male employer continually harassed her. When she complained to their daughter and asked to go home, she was sent to work for the daughter instead.  Conditions did not improve. 

 

When the Gulf War broke out, her employers moved to London and took her with them.  She was not paid for six months even though her employers continued to shop.  She finally escaped from her employers with help from a woman she met in a park and from the police.  She then joined Walin-Waling, an organization that helps undocumented domestic workers in the UK.  (Testimony of Teresita Cuizon in Without Reservation: The Beijing Tribunal on Accountability for Women’s Human Rights. Reilly, Niamh ed. Centre for Women’s Global Leadership, NJ. 1996)

 

DOMESTIC WORKERS

 

Many women upon arrival in a foreign country find that they are treated inhumanely. Domestic workers are seldom covered by the laws protecting citizens, yet they are expected to conform to the culture of their host country or suffer the consequences.  For example, many Christians are forbidden to attend church in the Middle East; in Singapore, foreign household workers (FHWs) are forbidden to marry locals and must undergo a medical check up every three months; if she is pregnant or has a sexually transmitted disease, she is deported.  There are numerous cases of domestic workers being killed by employers, committing suicide in desperation or in extremely rare case, killing their employer or "enslaver."  Should they be considered victims of human rights abuse?

 

Women Migrant Workers:  Some Action Strategies

 

Sending Governments can advocate to improve conditions for their migrant workers:  In 1987 the Philippines banned export of domestic workers in order to renegotiate bilateral agreements on wage rates with receiving countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.  As a result of these governmental negotiations, Filipina maids were ensured higher salaries than before. (Heyzer, Noeleen, Geertje Lycklama a Nijehlt, and Nedra Weerakoon, eds. 1994, p. 136, p. 65.)

 

NGO activities to organize domestic workers:  In 1993, Sakhi, a US grassroots advocacy group fighting to end violence against women in the South Asian community, began to organize the growing numbers of South Asian women brought to the US by South Asian employers to work as housekeepers.  Their activities included:

• Helping a domestic worker from India sue her employers for back wages and abuse, helping her get her passport back and threatening to expose employers to the community in a public action campaign

• And ad campaign in community newspapers highlighting responsibilities of employers and rights of domestic workers

• Offering free English classes to integrate workers into the organization as well as to inform them of their rights

 

Domestic Workers Organizing Themselves: Walin-Waling is an organization of undocumented domestic workers in the UK.  It takes its name from a rare orchid that can only be found hidden in the Philippine mountains. Members of Walin-Waling work closely with a group in the Philippines, Kalayaan.  They attend training sessions to learn their rights, engage in social activities, help raise money for each other in times of need and organize to improve the human rights of domestic workers.

 

 

The Beijing Platform and Migrant Women

 

Migrant women organized and lobbied to get the Beijing Platform for Action to address their human rights.   As a result of these efforts, the Platform does include references to some important issues faced by migrant women, even though it ignores others. 

 

The Platform calls on governments to ensure "the full realization of the human rights of women migrants, including migrant workers, and their protection against violence and exploitation."  However, the Platform only calls for measures to empower documented women migrants and not undocumented workers  (paragraph, 58k).

 

The Platform acknowledges that migrant women are particularly vulnerable to violence and recommends that migrant, displaced and refugee women be made aware of their human rights and the mechanisms available to them. (paragraph 116)  It also recognizes that women migrant workers are dependent on employers for their legal status which can make them more vulnerable to exploitation. (paragraph 55 (c)).

 

Factors Affecting the Violation of Human Rights of Migrant Women

 

•     Increasing xenophobia and racism

•     Violence at home, at work or in the streets

•     Inability to access local laws or law enforcement for protection from domestic violence

•     Immigration laws that enable batterers or abusive employers to threaten women with deportation

•     No control over living and working conditions

•     Discriminatory laws that prevent family reunification

•     Lower pay, irregular, long hours, inadequate food, no privacy, little time off or no paid vacation, no medical coverage 

•     Illegal seizure of passports and inability to leave country without an exit visa or employer's permission

•     Debt bondage to employer or agent or local moneylender at home in order to pay off travel expenses

•     Ignorance of the country's language, customs and laws

•     Little opportunity to improve employment opportunities

•     Limited or no access to existing government benefits like welfare, housing or healthcare

•     Lack of solidarity from other women's groups or social change groups

•     Exploitative economic policies of both receiving and sending countries

 

 

Exercise 5:     Taking Action

 

Objective:       To develop strategies to promote the human rights of migrant women

 

Time:              60 minutes                                                                                           

 

Material:        Chart paper and markers

Optional: Copies of “Strategies to Promote the Human Rights of Migrant Women” (below)

 

1.      List:

 

Divide participants into small groups to develop strategies for migrant worker organizations and advocates to lobby their government to improve conditions for women going abroad to work. Each group writes the strategies on chart paper under three headings: "Internationally," "In Sending Country," and "In Receiving Country." Participants may wish to break these categories down further into strategies for migrant and non-migrant groups.

 

2.  Discuss:   Ask small groups to present their lists and the reasons for choosing their strategies.  Circle those that the group considers most effective.  Read the strategies from the list  below and add those the group approves to the lists.

 

 

Strategies to Promote the Human Rights of Migrant Women

 

Internationally:

 

•     Create an International Union of Domestic Workers:  what goals and strategies would such a union employ to protect and advance the status of all domestic workers?  What impact would such a union have on your country (as a receiving or sending nation)?  What role would it play internationally?  What are some of the obstacles in establishing such a body?

 

•     Urge more nations to ratify and enforce the UN Convention to Protect the Rights of Migrant Workers.  This convention was passed in 1975 and includes comprehensive protections, though based on a model of male migrant workers.  However, few governments have ratified it. 

 

•     Expand the Migrant Worker's Convention to consider women migrant workers.  What are some of the strategies NGOs can use to make this convention enforceable and get more nations to ratify it?  How can it be implemented?

 

•     Ask the International Labour Organization (ILO) to track data on and act as a clearinghouse for information on women migrant workers.

 

In Sending Country:

 

•     Standardize and monitor recruitment process that includes government oversight.

 

•     Provide training and counselling for the worker; ensure that her family is notified as to where and for whom she will be working.

 

•     Lobby government to protect and assist their citizens abroad through bi-lateral negotiations with receiving governments, and demand they set up a Labour Liaison office within their embassy to monitor the situation.

 

•     Offer credit schemes to assist with travel costs to eliminate borrowing from moneylender, agents or employer.

 

•     Institute schemes to direct remittances towards savings and not just consumption by family; provide training for returning workers to use earnings as investment or income-generation.

 

•     Urge re-examination of Structural Adjustment Policies which exacerbate the conditions leading women to migrate abroad to support their families.

 

In Receiving Country:

 

Strategies for non-migrant women's groups:

•     Develop a multi-lingual organization using first- and second-generation immigrants to translate and provide the cultural awareness that is critical in building trust and meeting the needs of migrant women.

 

•     Use non-written forms of communication such as radio, video, street theatre and song as outreach and education tools in immigrant communities

 

•     Build solidarity with allied groups such as students and churches to mobilize community support and supply services to migrant women.

 

•     Work at national policy level with service providers, lawyers, and other immigrant groups cutting across boundaries of geography, class, race and religion.  For example, a coordinated national coalition in the USA successfully lobbied for a provisions enabling battered immigrant women to apply for immigration status under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) passed in 1994.

 

(Adapted from Hear Our Voices:  Resource Directory of Immigrant & Refugee Women's Projects. American Friends Service Committee, 1995.)

 

Strategies for migrant women's groups:                                                                    

•     Form organizations or collectives in receiving country to, provide services such as shelter or communal living space, counselling, legal aid, training and advocacy for migrant women

 

•     Monitor employers and agents, and begin a registry to track them

 

•     Lobby host government to protect migrant workers by establishing minimum wages and conditions, and require contractual agreement between employer and employee using standard form

 

•     Lobby host country to permit workers to change status and move to professional work where they possess the skills

 

•     Lobby for amnesty regularizing work status of non-documented workers resident in country.

 

(Adapted from Heyzer, Noeleen, et al, eds. 1994.)

 

 

Defining the Rights of Migrant, Refugee, and Displaced Women

 

Exercise 6:  Making Your Own Law

 

Objective:       To develop a law to define the rights of migrant, refugee and displaced women

To assess the list of rights developed by the "Vienna Working Group"

 

Time:              60 minutes

 

Materials:      Copies of the list of rights of refugee, migrant and displaced women drawn up by the Vienna Working Group (below)

 

Write, Read, Discuss:

 

Step 1:     Divide the participants into small groups to write their own law that would protect the human rights of girls.  The law should be as specific as possible.  Should this be international law?  National or local law?  All three?

 

Step 2:  The list of rights below was drawn up by a group of more than 70 European NGOs working on issues pertaining to migrant, refugee and displaced women at a meeting in Vienna in October 1993. Many of the participants were migrant, refugee and displaced women themselves, from lands as diverse as Algeria, Croatia, Cyprus, Iran, Ireland, Philippines, Tibet, Turkey, Serbia and Zaire. 

 

Distribute copies of the list.  Ask the small groups  to consider the following:

 

Rights of Refugee, Migrant and Displaced Women

•     Does it make sense to you? 

•     What would you add, if anything? 

•     What would you delete, if anything?

 

1.   The right to family reunification wherein women retain their autonomy.  Women, like other refugees, should be able to reunite with their families who live in other countries.  However, when they do so, women should be able to continue to be independent persons with full legal capacity. No one, including their male relatives or husbands in the new country, should make decisions for them.  A change in marital status should not result in a change in legal status.  For example, if a refugee woman divorces in her new country, her case for refugee status should continue to be judged independently and not linked to that of her husband.

 

2.   The right to safe return to their homes.  All refugees have the right to safe return to their homes, but this must be particularly safeguarded in the case of refugee and displaced women, who are particularly vulnerable to rape, sexual assault and other forms of abuse. 

 

3.   The right to freedom from violence—in flight, in countries providing protection and during and upon their return home, if return home is possible.  “All forms of violence against women in public and private life affect migrant, refugee and displaced women, regardless of individual status or condition.  This is further exacerbated by the disintegration of traditional support structures, and inaccessibility and/or lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate services.” (Vienna Working Group)

 

3.   The right to fair, appropriate, gender-sensitive asylum procedures.  Women should be employed as interviewers and  interpreters, especially for female asylum seekers who may have suffered sexual assault or violence.  Women refugees should be given the opportunity for private and confidential interviews.