A/HRC/23/44
reporting arrangements in several countries pursuant to Security Council resolution 1960
(2010); developing early warning indicators on sexual violence; 25 and establishing targets
to increase the proportion of female police officers in peacekeeping operations to 20 per
cent by 2014. However, these issues continue to represent stark challenges.
31.
Modest – and not yet entrenched – advances have been achieved in integrating
women into assistance distribution systems,26 and implementing fuel strategies to reduce
displaced women’s exposure to violence when they collect firewood. 27 Limited gains in
upholding housing, land and property rights of IDW have been achieved in some instances
through measures such as the provision of legal aid to returnee women. Likewise, the
participation of IDW in decision-making processes has increased in some countries,
including through the development of strong associations of IDW, for example in Colombia
and the Philippines.28 In 2011, UNHCR convened its second global dialogue with women
and engaged IDW in this process for the first time. 29 Despite persistent constraints, some
progress has been made in collecting disaggregated data in conflict and post-conflict
situations,30 including through the establishment of JIPS, which collects data disaggregated
by age, sex and location, as well as other indicators such as the provision of protection of
and assistance to IDW, their housing, land and property rights.
C.
Looking forward: analysis of key challenges
32.
Despite these advances, the Special Rapporteur finds that a host of challenges
remain, from implementing equitable documentation practices to systematically training
Government officials, security actors and field staff in gender approaches, raising
awareness of communities, especially host communities, about IDPs to avoid double
stigmatization of displaced women (as IDPs and as women) and engaging women in early
warning systems and disaster preparedness strategies. He finds that overcoming the
“implementation gap” that curtails the practical impact of the frameworks developed to
protect, assist and support the leadership role of IDW possibly represents the greatest
obstacle. Beyond this, he below some of the key challenges faced by IDW, and which are
notable for their strategic significance, or because they reflect important longstanding,
neglected or emerging problems.
25
26
27
28
29
30
Such indicators will be tested in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan and will
look specifically at sexual violence in the context of displacement situations.
IFRC, Practical Guide to Gender-sensitive Approaches for Disaster Management (2010).
Such strategies recognize that simply providing firewood in absence of broader livelihoods support is
inadequate as displaced women and girls without other viable livelihood options will still often gather
wood to sell, exposing themselves to increased risk of harm: Buscher, “Refugee Women”, p. 16; tools
of the IASC Task Force on Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy in Humanitarian
Settings, including the “Decision Tree Diagrams on Factors Affecting Choice of Fuel Strategy in
Humanitarian Settings” (2009) and the “Matrix of Agency Roles and Responsibilities for Ensuring a
Coordinated, Multi-Sectoral Fuel Strategy in Humanitarian Settings” (2009); World Food
Programme’s Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy in Humanitarian Settings (SAFE)
stoves initiative.
Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Moving Beyond Rhetoric: Consultation and
Participation with Populations Displaced by Conflict or Natural Disasters (2008).
UNHCR, Survivors, Protectors, Providers: Refugee Women Speak Out (2011). The title of the global
dialogue report does not reflect the participation of 80 IDPs from Colombia in the process.
Department of Social and Economic Affairs (UNDESA), Statistics Division, The World’s Women
2005: Progress in Statistics (2006) ST/ESA/STAT/SER.K/17, pp. vii- ix. See also the World Bank’s
gender data portal, http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender.
11
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