30 May 1991

12th plenary meeting

Refugee and displaced women and children

The Economic and Social Council,

Recalling that the majority of refugees and displaced persons are women and children and that a significant number of families are headed by women,

Expressing its deep concern about the widespread violations of the rights of refugee and displaced women and children and their specific needs regarding protection and assistance,

Stressing the potential of refugee and displaced women and the importance of ensuring their full participation when their needs are analysed and programmes are designed and implemented,

Stressing that all action taken on behalf of refugee and displaced women and children must be guided by the relevant international instruments relating to the status of refugees, as well as other human rights instruments, in particular, the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, adopted on 28 July 1951, and its 1967 Protocol, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,

Recalling resolution 34/2 of 8 March 1990 of the Commission on the Status of Women,

Recognizing that ensuring equal treatment of refugee and displaced women and men may require specific action in favour of the former,

Emphasizing the close link between protection and assistance programmes,

Recalling the special relevance of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and the obligations of the United Nations system to give effect to its provisions,

Taking note of the substantial number of refugees and displaced persons and their impact on the development prospects of the already fragile infrastructure of some receiving countries,

Noting the important role of the main international bodies and organizations concerned, namely, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the United Nations Border Relief Operation, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross,

Recognizing the important role played by non-governmental organizations,

Recalling its resolution 1990/78 of 27 July 1990, in which it requested the Secretary-General to initiate a system-wide review to assess the experience and capacity of various organizations in the coordination of assistance to all refugees, displaced persons and returnees,

Commending the policy on refugee women recently adopted by the Executive Committee of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and subsequently endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 45/140 of 14 December 1990,

Commending the Guidelines on Refugee Children adopted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,

Taking note of the report of the Secretary-General and the report of the Expert Group on Refugee and Displaced Women and Children, held at Vienna from 2 to 6 July 1990,

1. Calls upon Member States, in cooperation with United Nations organizations and non-governmental organizations, urgently to address the root causes of refugee movements and displacement;

2. Calls upon the international community to give priority to extending international protection to refugee women and children by implementing measures to ensure greater protection from physical violence, sexual abuse, abduction and circumstances that could force them into illegal activities;

3. Urges Member States, United Nations organizations and non-governmental organizations to ensure that the specific needs and resources of refugee and displaced women and children are fully considered in the planning of their activities and programmes;

4. Also urges Member States, United Nations organizations and non-governmental organizations to ensure that refugee and displaced women are provided with sufficient information to enable them to make decisions on their own future;

5. Encourages Member States and relevant organizations to provide access to individual identification and registration documents, on a non-discriminatory basis, to all refugee women and, wherever possible, children, irrespective of whether the women and children are accompanied by male family members;

6. Urges Member States and the organizations concerned to ensure the full participation of refugee and displaced women in the process of assessing their own needs and in the planning and implementing of programmes;

7. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the system-wide review to assess the experience and capacity of various organizations in the coordination of assistance to all refugees, displaced persons and returnees assesses, in particular, the ability of those organizations to address the situation of refugee women and children;

8. Encourages international organizations to increase their capacity to respond to the needs of refugee and displaced women and children by greater coordination of their efforts;

9. Commends those Member States that, despite severe economic and development problems of their own, continue to admit large numbers of refugees into their territory, and emphasizes the importance of the international community sharing those burdens;

10. Requests all United Nations and other intergovernmental organizations, Governments, non-governmental organizations and funding agencies that play a role in the assistance and protection of refugees and displaced persons, that have not already done so, to adopt a policy on refugee and displaced women and children that will provide for the full integration of women and children into their programmes, within their respective mandates, and will include a time-frame and procedures for implementation;

11. Urges the recruitment of staff, in particular, female field staff, who are able to provide assistance and protection appropriate to the specific needs of refugee women and children;

12. Calls upon organizations working with refugees to ensure that key staff members undergo training to raise their awareness of the issues specific to refugee and displaced women and to provide them with skills for planning appropriate protection and assistance activities;

13. Urges that, in the collection of refugee statistics, data disaggregated by age and gender be included in order to represent the refugee population accurately.