Speech #1020168607

Mr. Speaker. I want to commend the Womens Commission for Refugee Women and Children for sponsoring a symposium on June 8. 1992 entitled "Going Home: The Prospect of Repatriation for Refugee Women and Children." Eight percent of the worlds refugees are women and children. They are a vulnerable group whose special needs must be taken into account when nations and international organizations develop strategies for refugee assistance. repatriation. and resettlement. Throughout the world over 14 million women and children have been forced to flee warfare. persecution. and famine. A recent study conducted by the International Catholic Child Bureau found that of 111 Central American refugee women in Washington. DC. 85 percent had been victims of at least one traumatic event in their home country. The average woman experienced 3.3 traumatic events. such as rape. injury. interrogation. house searches. threats. bombings. and gunfire. Twentyfour of the women interviewed had been present at a murder. The children of these women have been found to develop more slowly than normal because their mothers do not have the emotional strength to cope with them. Protection problems are of particular concern when women become refugees. Refugee women often endure physical abuse. particularly in border areas. along escape routes. and in refugee and displaced persons camps. Women who do not yet enjoy permanent resettlement or quick repatriation are particularly vulnerable. Rape. abduction. sexual abuse. demands for sexual favors in return for protection. food. or asylum are common in all areas of the world where refugee or displaced women are found. Physical abuse is the most visible form of abuse and discrimination against refugee women. yet international and intergovernmental agencies continue to direct little or no attention toward preventative measures that could be taken. We all must press for enhanced protection of women refugees. but we must also call for the equitable treatment of women in the determination of their refugee status. To do this states parties to international and regional refugee conventions and protocols should consider as refugees those who have been persecuted on grounds of their sex and states should recognized social and institutional forms of repression which contravene international legal standards and constitute a violation of human rights as forms of persecution leading to the granting of refugee status. Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Womens Commission on Refugee Women and Children for being on the frontline for refugee women and children. Because of the commissions work and ability to articulate the plight of refugee women and children worldwide we have become better informed of the special problems confronting this group and we will work to see that their rights are protected.