Non-governmental Organization (NGO) Submission to the Standing Committee of the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Geneva, 29 June 1999

1. We welcome the conference room Paper on Family Protection Issues (EC/49/SC/CRP.14), and the emphasis the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has placed on the unity of the family as an essential right of the refugee. As the Paper notes, the Conference of Plenipotentiaries that adopted the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees affirmed respect for family unity, just as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other standards and principles do. Among the best ways to protect refugee families is to respect the principle of family unity for in most cases, individuals are nurtured, cared for and protected best by their own family.
2. We strongly support a definition of family which is flexible enough to reflect the many different arrangements refugees must face when forced to flee. While women heads of households are common, relief organizations also routinely see child and adolescent heads of households, as well as grandparents and extended family members caring for dependent family members. We welcome UNHCR’s commitment to a flexible approach that considers economic and emotional dependence in determining family composition, and urge States to also recognize this. Many different family compositions are required in refugee situations, as families struggle to stay alive, to locate loved ones and to rebuild their lives. Such recognition is imperative as all refugee protection and assistance flows from this definition: from access to humanitarian aid to resettlement and asylum processing decisions.
3. In considering refugee status, the conference paper recognizes that the main refugee claimant may not always be the head of the family and that each family member should have the opportunity to submit any refugee claim he or she may have. In recent years, some States have recognized the unique forms of persecution suffered by women and children and have issued guidelines on the adjudication of gender-based claims and children’s asylum claims. The adjudicator should have an affirmative responsibility to separately evaluate the claims of other family members in cases in which the head of household is rejected.
4. Family protection should complement, not supersede, the acknowledged rights of individual family members. The right to protection must not be restricted by family considerations. Children and women suffer particular forms of persecution that are sometimes perpetrated or permitted by family members. For this reason, States and UNHCR should support specific programming to address these concerns, for example:

• Equal access to education for boys and girls
• Prevention of and response to domestic violence
• Protection from female genital mutilation
• Protection and assistance for individuals who are sexually violated, exploited or trafficked

1. Not only should all measures be made to reunite families who have been split up in refugee situations, but also all measures should be taken to preserve the family unit and prevent its breakup. In all phases: the emergency, care and maintenance, and return and reintegration phases, States, UNHCR and NGOs should work to keep families together. We saw in the Kosovo crisis the forced movement and separation of refugee families, with no regard to the right to family unity, resulted in the traumatic separation of many families, who may spend years—perhaps lifetimes—attempting to reunite. Separated children are especially at risk of abuse and exploitation, and should be priorities for reunification. Dependent elderly and disabled are others who should be priorities for reunification.
2. We support UNHCR’s efforts to assist families in reunification by promoting it as a right and working with States to support it. We believe that refugees and their family members who qualify for Convention Status ought to receive it, and that those States who give a lesser, so-called humanitarian status to refugees must also honor the refugees’ fundamental right to family reunification.

How to Protect the Refugee Family

3. Refugee situations are inherently chaotic and dangerous, posing serious threats to the physical, social and legal security of all individuals, and often resulting in the rupture of families. Women, who are most often primary caregivers in the family, and children, who depend on the structure of the family, face unique risks in refugee crisis because of their lack of political and economic status throughout the world. To address this, UNHCR established guidelines to improve protection for women and children, including: Guidelines on the Protection and Care of Refugee Women (1991), Refugee Children: Guidelines on Protection and Care (1994) and Sexual Violence Against Refugees: Prevention and Response (1995). However, there are major gaps in implementation of these guidelines, the result of which places families at grave risk. States and UNHCR must place higher priority on the implementation of the Guidelines, with regular monitoring worldwide.
4. Recognizing the protection risks families face, the UNHCR established two important posts: the Senior Coordinator for Refugee Women and the Senior Coordinator for Refugee Children. Unfortunately, both posts are now empty, and both offices have lost staff positions. Both posts should be at senior levels within UNHCR, with direct reporting lines to the Assistant High Commissioner, so as to heighten prospects for compliance with the Guidelines throughout the organization.
5. In refugee camps around the world, UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations have been challenged in developing efficient and effective registration and distribution systems. These systems are critical to family protection, and require increased attention. All family members should be registered for each family unit, and all members who are over the age of majority should be noted. The practice of only registering male heads of household is not efficient or effective in distribution programs and hampers protection activities, since many families become separated during flight, after arrival in camps, or during the return process. Male heads of household are known to depart camps to seek employment or join armed forces. This movement, prolonged or temporary, often leaves women and/or older siblings to care for the family.
6. When women have no access to ration cards, they are at greater risk of abuse. In Tanzania, men have used ration cards as tools of power over women. Also, the UNHCR system of identifying ‘vulnerables’ has led to many problems in the camps. In Guinea, confusion over who should be registered as ‘vulnerable,’ and problems registering them, meant that thousands of refugees—particularly the elderly—were left out and have had no access to rations for months.
7. Birth registration is also critically important to protect the integrity of the refugee family. Lack of birth registration and failure to provide each parent with a copy can cause extreme hardship for families, including lack of access to services, problems with family reunification and statelessness.
8. The roles of family members can change dramatically in conflict situations. States, the UNHCR and NGOs must recognize the serious implications of these changing roles, and the implications for protection. Women who have lost their husbands, fathers and other male authority figures, work to rebuild their family support and protection systems, taking on previously male-designated responsibilities. The risks women and their children face are well-documented: sexual exploitation and abuse, reduced access to services, hazardous labor. Women who take on nontraditional tasks may face threats to their physical safety, to their home and family. However, should they chose nontraditional tasks---whether income generation, shelter building, participation in political affairs or other activities--- States, UNHCR and others in the international community must defend their right to do so.

 

 

 

9. The roles of men and boys also change, and the impact of violence on them may result in physical and psychological trauma that impairs their ability to protect and care for their families. Many times their experiences as prisoners, combatants, torture victims, etc., and the impact on the family, are ignored. UNHCR, States and NGOs should consider funding and implementing programs to address these concerns. For example, reports from Kosovo indicate that boys and men were imprisoned, tortured and sexually abused; it is important to address not just their medical needs, but their psychological well-being.
10. Domestic violence threatens many families in refugee settings. Training for all staff, education and counseling for communities, and outreach to police, security and refugee camp workers, are just a few of the things States, UNHCR and NGOs should support. Pursuant to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the international community has the responsibility to work to prevent and respond to domestic violence. This should include a continuing program of education and outreach so that all concerned recognize domestic violence as the serious human rights abuse it is.

Separated Children

11. Separated children are one of the most tragic results of conflict and refugee movements. While NGOs agree with the UNHCR policy that family care is the best option for separated children, and orphanages can be harmful to the child and to the community, there is great potential for abuse, neglect and exploitation when children are in foster care. For example, in Guinea, some foster parents have denied food to separated children in their care, or have taken the assistance from them. Separated children are part of the family, although the family may be a foster one, and these children have the same right to protection all other children have. Their special circumstances require increased attention and additional resources. States and UNHCR should provide a supportive environment for foster families and communities so their ability to care for separated children is enhanced. In addition, they should set up mechanisms to provide better monitoring of foster care and other special arrangements made for separated children. We urge all parties to keep in mind the best interests of the child in making determinations about who shall provide shelter, care and protection, and how it should be provided.
12. Many children who are separated from their families are never identified and consequently, may have no access to assistance and protection, particularly family reunification. Because they are with an adult caretaker, humanitarian assistance workers may overlook the fact that they are separated from their families. It is important that States and UNCHR support family reunification efforts that reach as many separated children as possible. Tracing programs should be available to all separated children and all families who are missing children, and these programs should operate across borders and regions, in order to truly promote the right to unity of the family.

Respectfully submitted by:

The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, in consultation with:

Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch

International Rescue Committee

International Catholic Migration Commission

Lutheran Refugee and Immigrant Services

World Council of Churches

And other NGOs as facilitated by the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)