Background

Gender and forced migration in academia

The emergence of a focus on gender issues within forced migration has been the result of both developments at the academic level and in international human rights and humanitarian assistance. Within academia, the evolution of gender and forced migration (GAFM) as a field of study is linked to feminist theory and, more specifically, to its application to the subject of gender and development (GAD).

The focus on women in development (WID) started in the 1970s as an attempt to bring women more into the centre of development studies and practice. A similar approach informed the emergence of women in forced migration (WIFM) orientations in the mid 1980s. These initiatives were boosted by major international events, such as the 1985 Decade for Women conference in Nairobi and the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing. As a result of these and other developments, WIFM approaches began to be integrated in the discourse, charters, and programming of organizations working in the field. However, there is still a large gap between rhetoric and implementation, as practitioners continue to ignore the specific needs and strengths of women or resist change.

At the same time, academic studies began to shift from the WID approach towards a GAD orientation, and gender issues also became the focus in forced migration. The concept of gender 'refers to the social construction of femininity and masculinity as culturally and historically specific' and is usually used to highlight inequalities in power relations between men and women 'worked out by means of prescribed gender roles and...a more implicit power structure of gender symbolism' (Lammers 1999) .

Although a fully gendered approach to forced migration (or indeed development) is still evolving, developments in GAFM have already broadened the way we look at and deal with displaced people. For instance, the emphasis is shifting away from seeing women as a vulnerable group, usually grouped together with children, to the recognition that the impacts of displacement on women are complex and multi-faceted. There is also greater awareness that 'women' are not a homogenous group, and that the effects of forced migration on women vary in different contexts and according to factors such as class, race, ethnicity, or religion. This applies to men as well, whose roles and identities also need to be taken into account if gender inequalities are to be addressed.

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Humanitarian assistance and women's human rights

Many international organizations, NGOs, and aid groups have now moved from the earlier approach of 'add woman and stir' towards adopting a gender perspective on forced migration. Key in this have been developments in humanitarian, refugee, and human rights laws, as well as major events such as the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna and the 1995 Beijing conference. Throughout the 1990s, advocates for women's rights raised the profile of violence against women as a human rights concern, and questioned gender bias and abuse of women in humanitarian action. This led to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the appointment by the United Nations (UN) of a Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. It also resulted in many organizations issuing policy statements and introducing changes in their programmes to integrate gender issues throughout their work.

A major development has been the move towards seeing the rape and sexual abuse of women and girls during wars and armed conflict as a deliberate strategy and a crime to be punished, as reflected in the statutes for the War Crimes Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. The UNHCR, the main body in charge of assisting displaced people, has also made major steps in adopting a gender strategy since it first began to consider the needs of women and girls in the late 1980s, through the adoption of guidelines for the protection of refugee women and on sexual violence against women. These guidelines have been adopted or taken into account by other organizations as well. For example, the issue of gender-based violence has been addressed by bodies such as the World Health Organization and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Despite all of this, organizational changes are still mostly at the superficial level, while the implementation of a gender approach in the field remains very patchy. Gender guidelines and policies are often unknown or ignored by staff working with refugees, or clash with operational realities. Some organizations, on the other hand, prefer to keep the focus on improving women's human rights and status, rather than gender issues in general, while others take both approaches. There is also a debate going on about the usefulness of gender mainstreaming (i.e. integrating gender issues throughout an organization and all its programmes) versus adopting a specific gender focal point or unit within organizations.

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