Situation of refugee women in Europe

Doc. 8269

25 November 1998

Situation of refugee women in Europe

Recommendation 1374 (1998)

Reply from the Committee of Ministers

adopted at the 649^th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (17 November 1998)

The Committee of Ministers welcomes the interest shown by the Parliamentary Assembly in the situation of refugee women in Europe. It believes that refugee women represent a particularly vulnerable group of women, whose experience of displacement creates contexts in which there is a high risk of abuse and violation of their human rights.

The Committee of Ministers would like to point out, as a general remark, that refugee women should be treated according to their specific situation, within the context of the international obligations of its member States, the policies and programmes aimed at refugees, and in accordance with the strategy of gender mainstreaming.

With this in mind, the Committee is instructing the Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Legal Aspects of Territorial Asylum, Refugees and Stateless Persons (CAHAR):

— to hold an exchange of views on the situation of refugee women in Europe and to consult the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG), the European Committee on Migration (CDMG) and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) on this question;

— to examine the advisability of taking into account gender-related factors as considerations for awarding refugee status;

and is instructing the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG):

— in the framework of the work of its Group of Specialists on the Protection of Women and Young Girls against Violence (EG-S-FV), to propose measures to combat female genital mutilation, including on the organisation of information campaigns about the harmful consequences of female genital mutilation;

— in the framework of the work of its Multisectoral Group on Action against trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation (EG-S-TS), and in the context of the draft Recommendation that this Group is preparing, to also take account of the particularly vulnerable situation of refugee women and of the risks they run as far as trafficking is concerned and to include them in any awareness-raising campaigns focusing on the effects of trafficking.

The Committee of Ministers considers the competent body to provide reliable data and information about refugee women to be the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and is therefore transmitting Recommendation 1325, together with this reply, to the UNHCR for information, and, if appropriate, for any comments. The Committee of Ministers welcomes the already existing close co-operation between the CAHAR and the UNHCR as well as other appropriate committees and underlines the importance of the continuation of such co-operation also in the field of refugee women.