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The extreme conditions under which refugees are often forced to flee; the consequent breakdown of family and societal structures; the location, size, design, and layout of refugee camps; women's subordinate status within their own societies; and inadequate prosecution of domestic and sexual violence in countries of origin as well as countries of refuge, are all factors that contribute to high rates of sexual and domestic violence in refugee settings. Recognizing these facts, unhcr has issued two important sets of guidelines to direct its staff on ways to better protect women refugees. Yet, in many places around the world, UNHCR's Guidelines on Refugee Women have remained merely aspirational, with little or no effort made by UNHCR staff to implement these guidelines as a routine and integral part of all UNHCR programs beginning from the emergency stage of a refugee crisis.171 In many places refugee women have been left for long periods with little or no attention paid to their protection needs, even in situations such as that in Tanzania, where unhcr and the Tanzanian government were long ago informed of the nature and extent of the violence to which refugee women are subject.
In 1999, some five years after the establishment of the refugee camps in Tanzania, unhcr began to address violence against women by implementing new programs and strengthening existing ones for refugee women. These efforts were undertaken partly as a result of advocacy on this issue by human rights groups and partly due to unhcr's receipt of u.n. Foundation funds172 in October 1998 tosupport programs to fight violence against refugee
women in several sub-Saharan African countries. Many of these programs and efforts are commendable in their objectives, yet further action in several critical areas is needed to enable these programs to offer refugee women the greatest amount of protection. Unhcr's efforts currently to prevent and respond to violence against women in Tanzanian refugee camps are undermined in several key ways. With regard to domestic violence:
* domestic and sexual violence are treated differently, with the result that assaults, including marital rape, occurring in homes are treated with less seriousness than they warrant;
* the lack of a protocol to guide staff and refugees who deal with domestic violence victims results in haphazard handling of such cases;
* the absence of effective mechanisms to punish perpetrators of domestic violence inevitably helps to perpetuate the violence;
* the abashingatahe do not operate in accordance with international human rights norms relevant to protecting women from, and responding to, domestic violence: there are no guidelines for how they should handle such cases. No consistent efforts are made to refer cases of violence for criminal investigation or to monitor the outcome in such cases; and
* the programs overlook the role that women's fundamental inequality plays in making women vulnerable to violence.
unhcr acknowledges the need to revise its policy on refugee women to include guidelines on domestic violence. The main issues, therefore, are when unhcr actually adopts a policy on domestic violence, what will be the content of this policy, and how will it be enforced.
unhcr also needs to remedy shortcomings in its response to sexual violence. Currently, these efforts lack:
* standardized implementation throughout all refugee camps;
* systematic follow-up on cases of sexual violence in the camps; and
* coordination between community services officers and protection officers to ensure that women understand their legal rights and other options and are accompanied and assisted during legal proceedings.
UNHCR's Guidelines and their Limitations
In July 1991, unhcr issued the Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women (hereafter Guidelines on Refugee Women) to assist staff in identifying and responding to the issues, problems, and risks facing refugee women.173 Almost four years later, unhcr issued Sexual Violence Guidelines to improve or initiate services to address the special needs and concerns of refugees who are at risk of or have suffered sexual violence.174
The Guidelines on Refugee Women set out measures that should be taken by unhcr and host governments to prevent and respond to physical and sexual attacks against women during flight and in host countries. These guidelines call, among other things, for:
* changing the physical design and location of refugee camps to provide greater physical security;
* using security patrols;
* reducing the use of closed facilities or detention centers;
* training staff on the particular problems faced by refugee women and employing female staff to identify their concerns;
* educating refugee women about their rights;
* giving priority to assessing the protection needs of unaccompanied refugee women; and
* ensuring women's direct access to food and other services, including access to whatever registration process is used to determine eligibility for assistance.
In cases of rape, the Guidelines on Refugee Women provide that "the aim of unhcr activities should be to ensure that the individual woman obtains protection in the future, that adequate actions are taken to prevent similar cases from occurring, that her medical and other needs resulting from the protection problem are met, and that actions are taken to institute legal proceedings ifsufficient evidence can be obtained."175 The Guidelines on Refugee Women also oblige unhcr staff to take steps to redress the problem when an individual refugee woman's rights are violated or where a pattern of discrimination against refugee women is uncovered.
The Sexual Violence Guidelines supplement the Guidelines on Refugee Women by suggesting a range of preventive measures that can and should be taken to prevent sexual violence. These steps include:
* ensuring that the physical design and location of refugee camps enhance the physical security of women;
* providing frequent security patrols by law enforcement authorities and by the refugees themselves;
* installing fencing around the camps;
* identifying and promoting alternatives to refugee camps where possible;
* organizing inter-agency meetings among unhcr, other relief organizations, and relevant government officials, as well as with refugees themselves, in order to develop a plan of action to prevent sexual violence; and
* assigning a greater number of female protection officers, field interpreters, doctors, health workers, and counselors to the camps.
Moreover, the Sexual Violence Guidelines stress that unhcr staff have an important role to play in taking preventive measures and involving the host government in implementing those measures. In particular, unhcr staff should stress to government authorities their duties to investigate, prosecute, and punish perpetrators of sexual violence and urge states "to adopt a firm and highly visible policy against all forms of sexual violence including that committed by government employees."176
The u.n. High Commissioner for Refugees' programs are supervised and approved by the unhcr Executive Committee, which is made up of fifty-three member states. The Executive Committee has issued a number of "General Conclusions," or formalized statements, on the subject of refugee women. These statements provide guidance to states on existing international refugee law and set moral obligations and contribute to the development of states' practice in dealing with refugees within their territories. For example, Executive CommitteeConclusion No.73 of 1993 sets standards which host governments must ensure when dealing with refugee protection and sexual violence. 177 Tanzania became a member of unhcr's Executive Committee in 1963 and thus is required to comply with the standards established under Executive Committee Conclusion No.73 in order to achieve maximum security for refugee women.
The Sexual Violence Guidelines provide unhcr staff with clear methods of identifying sexual violence victims and steps to take in response. Three areas must be addressed in supporting the victim: protection and redress, medical needs, and psychosocial and counseling needs. Protecting the victim may involve contacting the police if the victim so decides and ensuring the physical safety of the victim by such measures as her "removal to a safe house, emergency room or immediate transfer from a camp."178 The Sexual Violence Guidelines state that, where the alleged perpetrator of sexual violence is a member of the police, military, or a government official, "immediate measures" are necessary. Such measures are, again, dependent on the wishes of the victim and include bringing the incident to the attention of high-level officials, organizing identification lineups, and prosecuting the alleged perpetrator.179
There is a significant gap in unhcr's policy Guidelines on Refugee Women: they do not substantively address the problem of domestic violence. In fact, the one reference to domestic abuse contained in the Sexual Violence Guidelines discourages unhcr staff from becoming involved in domestic rapecases.180 As a consequence, unhcr staff have no guidance on their affirmative obligations or authority regarding domestic violence. The absence of a clear, informed, and consistent unhcr policy on domestic violence has contributed to institutional silence on this issue, kept concerned staff from taking initiatives, and allowed other staff members to ignore the problem. Without a policy, no sustained and meaningful attention is paid to this problem.
Notwithstanding these shortcomings, the Guidelines on Refugee Women and the Sexual Violence Guidelines are important steps in raising the profile of refugee women throughout unhcr's mission and ensuring that the needs of women are reflected in every stage of program planning. In particular, they draw critical attention to the widespread, but previously much ignored, problem of sexual violence.
Guidelines are not Enough: Implementation
unhcr is revising its policies on refugee women to come up with a concrete policy that includes all issues affecting refugee women that unhcr staff in the field need to address. As unhcr's inconsistent implementation of its guidelines on sexual violence makes clear, the existence of guidelines is not enough: protection requires early and thorough implementation of such directives.
The research conducted by Human Rights Watch in Tanzania demonstrated the difficulties of translating guidelines into practice. The guidelines often were not consistently implemented by unhcr staff in the field. Some staff had not even been apprised of or trained in the content of unhcr's policies on women. The guidelines often were not readily available, and in some cases, unhcr staff did not even know that they existed. Staff also did not understand that implementation of these guidelines on protection of refugee women was not a choice, but rather a routine and integral obligation on their part as unhcr employees. By October/ November 1999 unhcr's implementation of its guidelines had improved, thanks to its receipt of a u.n. Foundation grant of U.S. $1.65 millionto improve programs for refugee women in several African countries, including Tanzania.181
Human Rights Watch recognizes the financial and logistical challenges facing unhcr in sustaining refugee protection programs, particularly in Africa. The cuts in unhcr's budget, the focus of international attention on recent refugee crises in Europe, as well as "donor fatigue" with respect to African refugee crises, have served to limit resources available to refugees in most African countries.182 While resources are a part of the problem, however, it is clear that unhcr's slow progress in implementing its own guidelines on women across the board is not solely a matter of resources. Apathy and discriminatory attitudes among some unhcr staff remain a stumbling block to consistent and routine implementation. As the Tanzanian example illustrates, once the political will is there, much more can be done to create programs that better protect women.
The Response of UNHCR Tanzania to Domestic and Sexual Violence
In October and November 1999 Human Rights Watch returned to the Burundian refugee camps in Tanzania to find that unhcr had, to its credit, initiated more systematic, careful, and effective efforts to address the problems of sexual and domestic violence. In 1999 unhcr began to strengthen existing mechanisms to prevent violence against refugee women by, among other things, increasing education and awareness campaigns against gender-based violence among refugees, mobilizing refugees to engage in community-based interventions to prevent violence against women, providing counseling to victims of sexual and domestic violence, and providing legal assistance to victims of rape who wish to pursue their cases in court. These positive measures by unhcr are a reflection of the seriousness with which unhcr officers in Tanzania now take protection of refugee women as part of their duties. While unhcr's current programs to protect women refugees in the Tanzanian camps are in their initial stages and will take some time to affect the lives of refugee women, they are all steps in the right direction and, once improved, should be adapted and replicated in other unhcr programs elsewhere.
unhcr's efforts to prevent and respond to violence against women in Tanzanian refugee camps can be further strengthened in several key ways. First, although unhcr has expressed concern about both sexual and domestic violence, its response nonetheless has been targeted more at sexual violence. One result of this differential treatment is that domestic violence is treated as a lesser priority, which reinforces the common perception that it does not warrant an equally serious response. Second, all unhcr programs on violence against women need to be more consistently implemented across camps. In particular, unhcr should exercise greater oversight regarding the collection of uniform, consistent, disaggregated data on the rates of sexual and domestic violence in the various camps. Third, unhcr follow-up on both domestic and sexual violence cases needs to be improved and standardized. Fourth, unhcr should facilitate better coordination between community services officers and protection officers to ensure that women understand their legal rights and other options in instances of domestic or sexual violence and that women are accompanied and assisted during legal proceedings. Finally, unhcr needs to monitor more effectively refugee-run dispute mechanisms, such as the abashingatahe, to which women go for resolution of crimes of violence, to ensure that all allegations of violence are referred for criminal investigation, and it should provide training to these community-based groups on how to handle domestic violence cases.
Since 1997, human rights and humanitarian organizations have confirmed the need for greater attention to the issue of violence against women in the Tanzanian refugee camps. In addition to Human Rights Watch, other organizations have found high rates of violence against women. The irc concluded in 1997 that approximately 26 percent of the 3,803 Burundian refugee women they interviewed had experienced sexual violence during their flight from Burundi or while living in Kanembwa camp.183 The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children (hereafter "Women's Commission"), a U.S.-based nongovernmental advocacy group, found unhcr staff to be biased against women and dismissive of attacks against women during their visit to the Tanzanian camps to investigate the human rights conditions of Burundian refugee children and adolescents in February 1998.184 In March 1999, Refugees International, a U.S.-based nongovernmental advocacy group, found that rape and domestic violence were rampant in the Tanzanian camps.185
During its first visit to Tanzanian camps in May and June 1998, Human Rights Watch found several persistent problems, including serious understaffing of unhcr's field offices, poor training of unhcr staff, biased and dismissive attitudes among unhcr staff, and a lack of resources, all of which affected how unhcr Tanzania was administering its programs to prevent and respond to domestic and sexual violence. Human Rights Watch found too that some unhcr staff in Tanzania tended to hide their inaction behind "cultural" excuses when asked about cases of violence against refugee women in Tanzanian camps. For example, one unhcr field office head acknowledged that domestic violence was occurring in the camps but described the level of violence as "not disturbing" and as the "normal amount."186 Another unhcr protection officer attributed sexual and domestic violence to Burundian culture.187
Some unhcr staff interviewed by Human Rights Watch in 1998 simply did not recognize protecting women refugees from sexual and domestic violence to be part of their protection duties. unhcr protection staff in all of the camps visited maintained some record of cases of sexual and domestic violence against refugee women, but there were neither proactive, preventive strategies nor regular follow-up to ensure that cases were investigated and prosecuted. Often, it was due only to the individual initiative of a sympathetic unhcr staff member, rather than a routine procedure, that cases of sexual and domestic violence were effectively dealt with. In most cases, battered refugee women who lodged complaints of domestic violence with unhcr were offered only counseling services with an emphasis on reconciling the abused women with their batterers, ignoring the victims' need for safety and justice.188
Our research and visits to the Tanzanian camps in May and June 1998 indicated that unhcr's efforts fell short of what was needed to provide meaningful protection to refugee women in those camps. In addition to the insidious problem of discriminatory attitudes, some of the key problems that Human Rights Watch identified at that time included an insufficient number of protection officers assigned to the Tanzanian camps; lack of clear directions on how to respond to victims of sexual and domestic violence; and too few programs to train unhcr and its implementing partners' staff, police, prosecutors, magistrates, and other Tanzanian authorities working with refugees on ways to treat victims of sexual and domestic violence.
Some of these problems had been acknowledged by unhcr and were being addressed during 1998. unhcr Tanzania subsequently began to tackle other problems as well. In March 1998 unhcr hired a consultant for five months to assess and work on the issue of sexual violence in the camps in Kasulu, Kibondo, and Ngara regions-the same areas that Human Rights Watch investigated. This consultant issued a report on sexual violence in the camps in these three regions and made efforts to initiate and implement community education projects for refugees in all the camps. unhcr also held a workshop on sexual violence in Kasulu district in July 1998. At this workshop, unhcr staff invited a member of the Tanzania Women Lawyers' Association (TAWLA) to facilitate a workshop to explain Tanzanian laws on rape and physical assault to the participants.189 In July 1998, a UNHCR junior protection officer was posted to the Kibondo camps, whereunhcr had previously had no protection officer, to carry out protection duties for over 100,000 refugees in those camps. In the first half of 1999, unhcr deployed a protection officer to the Kasulu camps, bringing the number of protection officers in unhcr's field offices in Tanzania to four. These four protection officers are responsible for all protection duties in the Kasulu, Ngara, and Kibondo camps: nine refugee camps, with over 500,000 refugees.190 This is still a daunting task for the protection officers, but it is a marked improvement over what it had been two years earlier.
In February 1999, Human Rights Watch had meetings with a range of officials at unhcr's headquarters in Geneva. These included staff of the International Protection, Great Lakes Operations, Inspection and Evaluation, Technical and Operational Support, and Programme and Technical Support divisions. The aim was to discuss UNHCR's response to sexual and domestic violence in the Tanzanian refugee camps and how this should be improved. Human Rights Watch argued for better implementation of unhcr's policy guidelines and programs for refugee women in the camps, including the development of effective programs to combat domestic violence. The director of unhcr's Great Lakes Operations acknowledged the serious problem posed by domestic and sexual violence in refugee camps and said that unhcr was planning to strengthen its efforts to prevent such violence through special programs in five sub-Saharan Africa countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
In March 1999, unhcr launched the Ted Turner Project, which aims to strengthen unhcr's programs in Kenya, Tanzania, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, to prevent sexual and gender-based violence in the camps. In Tanzania, this project-officially known as the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (sgbv) project, is now at the implementation phase. In each camp, unhcr protection officers and community services officers, unhcr implementing partners, and local ngo staff are creating and coordinating programs to address violence against women in the camps.
* In the Kasulu camps (Mtabila 1 and 2, Muyovosi, and Nyarugusu), the sgbv program is coordinated by the unhcr protection officer and aprotection assistant, the community services officer, the sgbv field assistant,191 an sgbv lawyer,192 and staff of unhcr's implementing partners and local ngos: Christian Outreach, Africare, and the Diocese of Western Tanganyika.
* In the Kibondo camps (Mtendeli, Kanembwa, Nduta, and Mkugwa) the sgbv program is coordinated by the unhcr protection officer and a protection assistant, the sgbv coordinator,193 an sgbv lawyer, and staff of unhcr's implementing partners and local ngos: irc, Dutch Relief Agency, and umati.
* In the Ngara camps (Lukole A and B), the sgbv program is coordinated by the unhcr protection officer and two protection assistants, a community services officer and a community services assistant, and staff of unhcr's implementing partner, Norwegian People's Aid (npa).
The sgbv coordinator, lawyers, and field assistant are all new positions funded by the Ted Turner grant. They were recruited by unhcr on one-year contracts, commencing September 1999.194 The sgbv field assistants and community services officers' responsibilities include following up individual casesof violence against women that require community-based assistance, monitoring and supervising community services programs, and designing a work plan for unhcr and its implementing partners to ensure coordination, cooperation, and non-duplication of activities.195 The sgbv lawyers' responsibilities include compiling statistics on all sgbv cases against refugee women in the district and primary courts; following-up and monitoring progress on these cases with the police and courts; intervening with the authorities in individual cases; if appropriate, ensuring that cases are properly investigated and prosecuted; and conducting legal awareness and training workshops for magistrates, prosecutors, unhcr staff, implementing partners, and refugee leaders and women.196 unhcr had no plans, however, at the time of the Human Rights Watch visit, to recruit a lawyer to carry out similar duties in the Ngara camps.197 The unhcr protection officers are responsible for overseeing the sgbv program and supervising new staff to ensure that programs are being implemented according to unhcr's guidelines on protection of refugee women.198
In all camps in the Kasulu, Kibondo, and Ngara districts, the sgbv program staff conduct education and awareness sessions on gender-based violence for various components of the refugee community, including refugee men, women, and youth; religious groups; and teachers. The new funding has enabled more community services agencies to participate in the sgbv programs in all camps. Before the launching of the project in 1999, the bulk of the sgbv program activities were carried out in the Kibondo camps by irc through awareness sessions on sexual and other gender-based violence for refugees and other agency staff. irc opened drop-in centers in Kanembwa, Mtendeli, Nduta, and Mkugwa camps, each staffed by one national community services officer, a refugee supervisor, and refugee social workers and counselors. The drop-in centers are designed to provide women victims of sexual and gender-based violence with a "safe space" to report their cases and obtain assistance. The staff working at the drop-in centers receiverefugees who come to report cases, record cases, and make referrals to unhcr, the MHA, and other community services and health agencies where victims may request material or health assistance.199 When refugee victims of sexual and other gender-based violence wish to pursue their cases in court, the IRC staff refer them to unhcr protection officers.200
With funding from the Ted Turner Project, unhcr's implementing partner, UMATI, took over from IRC the programs on sexual and other gender-based violence in the Kanembwa and Mkugwa camps.201 In Mtendeli camp, the Dutch Relief Agency and IRC share the running of community services programs, with the aim of increasing their capacity to respond to these problems in the refugee camps.202 IRC is now solely coordinating the sgbv program in only one camp: Nduta.203 unhcr implementing partners and local ngos in Kasulu (Africare, Christian Outreach, and the Diocese of Western Tanzania) have begun to provide services to refugees in the Kasulu camps that are similar to the services provided at IRC's drop-in centers in the Kibondo camps.204 As of November 1999, unhcr and community services implementing partners in Kasulu expected to expand existing community services buildings to include permanent drop-in centers fashioned after the irc drop-in centers in the Kibondo camps.205
In the Ngara camps (Lukole A and B), unhcr community services officers and unhcr's implementing partner, Norwegian People's Aid, have established women's centers that provide services similar to irc's drop in centers in Kibondo. unhcr community services and Norwegian People's Aid have organized refugee committees to form crisis intervention teams, which include refugee men andwomen, to attend to victims who come to report cases at the women's centers in the Ngara camps. unhcr and Norwegian People's Aid also coordinate programs to raise community awareness on sexual violence and to mainstream women's participation in leadership and education. These education and awareness programs focus on all women in Lukole A and B camps, especially those in positions of leadership, such as women representatives and counselors. unhcr has placed a female teacher in each of the eleven primary schools in Ngara camps to focus on creating awareness of sexual violence and other problems affecting refugee girls in the schools. Additionally, community services officers and four trained refugee women in the Ngara camps provide post-trauma counseling to victims of sexual attacks.206
Overall, unhcr's sexual and other gender-based violence programs in Tanzania have laid a solid foundation for achieving security for refugee women in those camps. With time, consistent monitoring, and the adoption of new strategies to strengthen these programs, women refugees in the Tanzanian camps will have much needed protection against gender-based violence in the camps.
The Refugee-Run Community Justice System
unhcr's policy on the protection of refugee women encourages unhcr staff to improve the standards of internal dispute resolution mechanisms within refugee camps in order to ensure that protection problems affecting women refugees are covered and that women have equal access to the remedies provided by these structures. Section 51 of the Guidelines on Refugee Women, reads, "unhcr staff should review legal codes and processes adopted in the camps to make sure that protection needs of women refugees are covered and that women have equal access to the remedies provided in these courts. Encourage adoption of rules governing these situations, encourage the participation of refugee women in these procedures, and provide training to those administering them."207 These refugee-run structures are not state-sanctioned courts of law, but rather operate as a community justice system run by refugees to resolve disputes among themselves. In the Tanzanian camps, a refugee-run informal justice system based on Burundian custom co-exists with the Tanzanian criminal justice system. However, the lack of enforcement powers leaves the refugee-run system in no position to deliverjustice to victims. Moreover, without monitoring or guidance and training on how to deal with cases, particularly cases of domestic and sexual violence, the refugee-run system tends not to meet the needs of women victims of violence in the camps.
The Burundian traditional system of justice utilizes customary practices for handling disputes, and it has been transplanted to the refugee setting. It consists mainly of elder male refugees, who mediate and reconcile people who are having problems-ranging from disputes between husbands and wives to disagreements between neighbors, and parents and children. To be recognized as a mushingatahe (member of the abashingatahe) under Burundian custom, an individual needs to be a person of integrity and to earn the respect and confidence of the community.
The abashingatahe form a traditional council, which regularly presides over offenses such as theft, domestic violence, and other assault cases and functions largely as a reconciliatory body.208 The sanctions the abashingatahe may impose are therefore minor, even for serious offenses like domestic violence.209 A refugee mushingatahe in Kanembwa camp told Human Rights Watch that, according to Burundian custom, the abashingatahe are not supposed to impose monetary fines as punishment for any case, but in the refugee setting that has been changed. In cases of domestic violence, a husband who beats his wife is required by the council to "apologize" formally to his wife by buying her a piece of cloth. However, in the Tanzanian refugee camps, we found that the abashingatahe often imposed small fines of around one thousand Tanzanian shillings (approximately U.S.$2.00) on alleged perpetrators of domestic violence, who then received no further sanction.210 Many refugees fail to pay even this fine, thus suffering no consequences for their crime as the traditional councils have no power to enforce their rulings.
Some refugees expressed the view that the traditional councils offered a chance of securing some form of redress, compared to the inadequate Tanzanian criminal justice system. Moreover, the role of the abashingatahe is more acceptable to some refugee women who wish to pursue a reconciliatory approach rather than have their husbands prosecuted in court. However, some domestic violence victims complained to Human Rights Watch that the abashingatahe did nothing to punish their batterers and that their batterers never complied with thejudgements given by the abashingatahe.211 Jeanne Y., whose domestic violence case is cited above, was beaten several times by her husband for failing to give birth to more children. She reported the case, and the abashingatahe warned her husband not to beat her again. Yet Jeanne Y.'s husband ignored the warning and continued to beat her.212
Much of the refugees' frustration stems from the abashingatahe's lack of enforcement powers and the low priority they attach to protecting women victims of domestic violence, which is invariably treated as a "lesser crime."
The lack of satisfactory redress through either the Tanzanian legal system or the refugee-run justice system underscores the urgent need for unhcr to strengthen preventive measures and to improve recourse to justice when domestic violence occurs. Greater effort should be made to guide and monitor the abashingatahe when they deal with domestic disputes; to ensure that all cases of violence are referred for criminal investigation; to train abashingatahe on women's rights; to establish safe places for victims of domestic violence in the camps; and to make the Tanzanian criminal justice system more accessible to women refugees who wish to pursue cases of domestic violence against them through the courts.
173 UNHCR, Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women (Geneva: UNHCR, July 1991).
174 UNHCR, Sexual Violence against Refugees: Guidelines on Prevention and Response (Geneva: UNHCR, March 1995).
175 UNHCR, Guidelines on Refugee Women, p. 27.
176 unhcr, Sexual Violence Guidelines, p. 20.
177 Under "Executive Committee Conclusion No.73 of 1993: Refugee Protection and Sexual Violence," the unhcr Executive Committee urges states, "to respect and ensure the fundamental right of all individuals within their territory to personal security . . . by enforcing relevant national laws in compliance with international legal standards and by adopting concrete measures to prevent and combat sexual violence, including, (i) the development of training programmes aimed at promoting respect by law enforcement officers and members of military forces of the right of every individual . . . to security of person; (ii) implementation of effective and non-discriminatory legal remedies including the facilitation of the filing and investigation of complaints against sexual abuse, the prosecution of offenders, and timely and proportional disciplinary action in cases of abuse of power resulting in sexual violence; (iii) arrangements facilitating prompt and unhindered access to all asylum seekers, refugees and returnees for unhcr and as appropriate other organizations approved by the governments concerned; (iv) activities aimed at promoting the rights of refugee women, including through the dissemination of the Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women and their implementation."
180 Section 3.5 of the Sexual Violence Guidelines reads, "Extreme caution should be exercised before any intervention is made on sexual violence in domestic situations. Concerned staff should be aware of the possible difficulties that may arise following intervention. In some situations, more harm may be caused to the victim and other relatives by becoming involved than had the matter been left alone."
181 The U.N Foundation money allocated to the Tanzanian camps for sexual and other gender related programs is a total amount of 195,681,000 Tanzanian shillings (approximately U.S.$243,000). This funding is budgeted under UNHCR's Tanzania project 00/AT/TAN/CM/256, as follows: health facilities and construction, 7,000,000 Tanzanian shillings(approximately U.S.$9,000); health facilities support, 18,900,000 Tanzanian shillings (approximately U.S.$24,000); individual family Support, 97,417,000 Tanzanian shillings (approximately U.S.$122,000); other community services support, 58,808,000 Tanzanian shillings (approximately U.S.$74,000); Training/Seminars, 4,000,000 Tanzanian shillings (approximately U.S.$5,000); and refugee legal representation, 33,600.000 Tanzanian shillings (approximately U.S.$42,000). An additional U.S.$7,400 was allocated to fund community services programs.
182 Between March and June 1999, unhcr received funds from donor countries equivalent to a weekly budget of U.S.$10 million for an estimated 800,000 Kosovar refugees. At the same time, UNHCR was able to raise only U.S.$1.3 million of an annual U.S.$8 million appeal for nearly half a million Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea and Liberia, most of whom have fled almost unimaginable atrocities. In other words, in 1999 UNHCR spent about U.S.$.11 per refugee per day in Africa. The average of U.S.$1.23 spent per refugee per day in the Balkans was ten times the amount spent on African refugees. Kenneth Roth, Op-ed, "Kosovars Aren't the Only Refugees," Wall Street Journal, June 8, 1999; T. Christian Miller and Ann M. Simmons, "Refugee Camps in Africa and Europe," Los Angeles Times, May 22, 1999; Thomas Chibale-Mabwe, "U.N.'s U.S.$0.11 Insult to African Refugees," Times of Zambia, July 16, 1999; John Vidal, "Comments and Analysis: Blacks Need, but only Whites Receive: Race Appears to be Skewing the West's Approach to Aid. Look at Kosovo. Then Look at Africa," Guardian, August 12, 1999; and Stephanie Nolen, "Rape at the End of the World: This Is Not Kosovo, and You Have Not Seen These People on Your Television Screen. But They Have Been Here for Years and They Are in Danger," Globe and Mail Metro, August 28, 1998.
183 irc, Pain Too Deep for Tears, p. 3.
184 The Women's Commission on Refugee Women and Children, A Child's Nightmare: Burundian Children at Risk (New York: Women's Commission on Refugee Women and Children, May 1998).
185 Refugees International, Hope in the Fight to Reduce Gender Violence in Tanzanian Refugee Camps (Washington, DC: Refugees International, May 26, 1999).
186 Human Rights Watch interview, unhcr field office head, Kasulu, Tanzania, May 27, 1998.
187 Human Rights Watch interview, unhcr protection officer, Kigoma , Tanzania, May 25, 1998.
188 Human Rights Watch interview, UNHCR field officer, Kibondo, Tanzania, June 3, 1998.
189 Human Rights Watch telephone interview, member of Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA), Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, January 4, 1999.
190 UNHCR protection officers do not directly carry out protection duties in Lugufu camp. The Lugufu camps in the Kigoma district, housing Congolese refugees, are mainly serviced by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), an international humanitarian organization.
191 The SGBV field assistant for the Kasulu camps is a Tanzanian national with a social work background. Her responsibilities include coordinating all community services programs on gender-based violence run by UNHCR and community services implementing partners and local ngos in the Kasulu camps. The sgbv field assistant works under the supervision of the protection officer.
192 UNHCR has recruited two Tanzanian lawyers titled sgbv lawyers, based at UNHCR's Kasulu and Kibondo field offices, respectively. The sgbv lawyers are responsible for assisting women victims of rape and other gender-based violence who are willing to pursue their cases in court with legal assistance as well as following up-cases of sexual and gender-based violence reported to the police and court to ensure that cases are properly investigated and prosecuted. The sgbv lawyers work under the supervision of the protection officers.
193 The sgbv field assistant for the Kibondo camps is a Tanzanian national whose background is in community health and nursing. Her responsibilities include coordinating all community services programs on gender-based violence run by UNHCR and UNHCR community services implementing partners and local ngos in the Kibondo camps. The sgbv field assistant works under the supervision of the protection officer.
194 Human Rights Watch interviews, sgbv field assistant, Kasulu, Tanzania, October 29, 1999; sgbv lawyer, Kibondo, Tanzania, November 7, 1999; and sgbv coordinator, Kibondo, Tanzania, November 9, 1999.
195 Human Rights Watch interviews, UNHCR community services officer, Kasulu, Tanzania, November 2, 1999; sgbv field assistant, Kibondo, Tanzania, November 9, 1999; and UNHCR community services officer, Ngara, Tanzania, November 12, 1999.
196 Human Rights Watch interview, sgbv lawyer, Kibondo, Tanzania, November 7, 1999.
197 Human Rights Watch interview, UNHCR protection officer, Ngara, Tanzania, November 11, 1999.
198 Human Rights Watch interviews, UNHCR protection officer, Kasulu, Tanzania, October 31, 1999; UNHCR associate protection officer, Kibondo, Tanzania, November 9, 1999; and UNHCR protection officer, Ngara, Tanzania, November 9, 1999.
199 Human Rights Watch interview, irc community services officers, Kibondo, Tanzania, November 5, 1999.
200 Human Rights Watch interview, irc community services officers, Kibondo, Tanzania, November 5, 1999.
201 Human Rights Watch interview, UMATI community services officer, Kibondo, Tanzania, November 9, 1999.
202 Human Rights Watch interview, Dutch Relief Agency community services officers, Kibondo, Tanzania, November 6, 1999.
203 Human Rights Watch interview, irc community services officers, Kibondo, Tanzania, November 6, 1999.
204 Human Rights Watch interviews, Christian Outreach community services coordinator, Kasulu, Tanzania, October 27, 1999; Africare community services officers, Kasulu, Tanzania, October 28, 1999; and unhcr community services officer, Kasulu, Tanzania, November 2, 1999.
206 Human Rights Watch interviews, Norwegian People's Aid community services officers, Ngara, Tanzania, November 11, 1999 and UNHCR community services officer, Ngara, Tanzania, November 12, 1999.
207 Section 51, Guidelines on Refugee Women, p. 35.
208 Human Rights Watch interview, Nicodeme L., mushingatahe, Kanembwa camp, Tanzania, June 3, 1998.
209 Human Rights Watch interview, Paul Z., mushingatahe, Kanembwa camp, June 3, 1998.
210 Human Rights Watch interview, irc Gender-Based Sexual Violence Project coordinator, Kibondo, Tanzania, June 1, 1998.
211 Human Rights Watch interview, Rosalie P., Mtendeli camp, Tanzania, June 3, 1998. This case is described fully under the "Domestic Violence" section.
212 Human Rights Watch interview, Jeanne Y., Mtendeli camp, Tanzania, June 3, 1998.