Where Are the Women? Gender Discrimination in Refugee Policies and Practices

Typical refugees are rendered almost invisible by the United Nations refugee instruments and domestic refugee status determination processes. Refugee demographics worldwide show that approximately 80 percent of an estimated 27 million refugees and displaced persons today are women or children (Anker, 1995). Yet this percentage stands in stark contrast to statistics that reveal that in 1998, for example, only 17,8 percent of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)-assisted refugees in South Africa were female (UNHCR; 1998). Also, according to the 'Gender Policy Statement', recently released by the Department of Justice, it is estimated that women constitute only five percent of those who have been formally granted refugee status in South Africa (www.doj.gov.sa/policy/gender02.html).