Survival At Risk: Evaluating Refugee Policy Towards Survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Abstract

Today, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are over 100 million people displaced from their homes, which represents 1% of the global population (UNHCR Canada 2022). Given this, it is clear that refugee protection remains an important facet of the international refugee policy framework. This paper explores this policy framework in the context of sexual and gender-based violence faced by refugees and attempts to uncover the gaps in current refugee protection policies and related programs. This paper does so by applying a critical feminist stance, engaging in a synthetic analysis of current international refugee policy, and examining case studies in Europe and Africa. This paper posits that there are significant constitutive, structural, and material gaps in the protection of refugee survivors of sexual and gender-based violence that result in an overburdened international protection system that fundamentally underserves survivors of this form of violence. Two sets of recommendations are offered: one to international leaders and policymakers that are aimed at shifting the policy structure that is currently protecting (or failing to) refugees, and the other to international organizations, who can make changes to their on-the-ground programs and operations in order to better serve survivors and close the policy gaps in this area.