The percentage of civilians killed and wounded as a result of hostilities has risen from five percent of all casualties at the turn of the 19th century to 65 percent during World War II and to 90 percent in more recent hostilities. Women and children comprise the majority of civilian deaths and the majority of all refugees. In the last decade, more than 2,000,000 children have been killed during wars, while more than 4,000,000 have survived physical mutilation, and more than 1,000,000 have been orphaned or separated from their families as a result of war.

In many conflicts, soldiers have destroyed food supplies, stolen donated food intended for women and children, and blocked human- itarian aid. In 2003, around 300,000 children were pressed into military operations, including many girls forced to work as combatants, cooks, spies, or sexual slaves for soldiers. The use of rape is a common tactic in modern war. The international community has a duty to take preventive action to improve preparedness and reduce the vulnerability of women and children to abuse and exploitation.

Early Action Systems
U.S-appointed coordinators during times of emergencies should maintain a data base on occurrences of gender-based violence or exploitation of children and develop a data base on the early signs that indicate a likelihood that gender-based abuse of children will occur during a humanitarian emergency. This information should be updated regularly, of countries or regions where there is an increased risk of gender-based violence against children. This information would improve the preparedness of the U.S. Government, U.S. Embassies and organizations to respond to such an emergency.

Security Concerns
Almost one-half of the world’s 37,500,000 refugees and internally displaced persons are children. Food rations in camps for refugees and internally displaced persons are often limited and unpredictable, and vulnerable women rarely have opportunities to generate income or products to barter for additional food and other supplies.

Refugee women and girls face threats because of power inequities, including being forced to exchange sex for food and humanitarian supplies, and being at increased risk of rape and gender-based violence due to the poor security in refugee camps. An investigation into sexual exploitation of refugees by aid workers in West Africa found many factors that contribute to the exploitation and abuse of women and children, including:

• Few women working in key positions in refugee relief efforts;
• Insufficient international staff presence in the camps;
• Isolation and lack of separate and distinctly placed sanitary facilities for men and women;
• Incomplete rations and delayed delivery of supplies to refugees;
• Lack of punishment for perpetrators, including adult refugees, of sexual crimes against children.

Refugees and internally displaced persons living outside of camps experience problems—vulnerability to harassment, abuse, and exploitation by landlords and employers—with little legal recourse, and constant threat of detention, imprisonment, and deportation. Existing NGO and international agency policies, procedures, training programs, and accountability mechanisms have not protected women and children from abuse, provided adequate assistance to survivors, or disciplined offenders and achieved justice.

The limited presence of protection officers and other trained managerial staff of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in camps, especially at night, exacerbates the vulnerability of women and children to abuse by, specifically, fellow camp residents and nearby local residents. Humanitarian agencies have failed to make women and children aware of their rights to protection and aid, to give them access to effective channels of redress, and to make humanitarian workers aware of their duty to respect these rights and provide aid.

Codes of Conduct
None of the funds made available by the Department of State through the Migration and Refugee Assistance account or the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance account may be provided to an organization that has failed to adopt a code of conduct on the protection of beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance that incorporates the six core principles recommended by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee:
(1) Sexual exploitation and abuse by humanitarian workers constitute acts of gross misconduct and are therefore grounds for termination of employment. (2) Sexual activity with persons under the age of 18 years is prohibited regardless of the age of majority or age of consent locally. Mistaken belief regarding the age of a child is not a defense. (3) Exchange of money, employment, goods, or services for sex, including sexual favors or other forms of humiliating, degrading, or exploitative behavior, is prohibited. (4) Sexual relationships between the providers and beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance are strongly discouraged since they are based on inherently unequal power dynamics. Such relationships undermine the credibility and integrity of humanitarian work. (5) Whenever a humanitarian assistance worker develops concerns or suspicions about sexual abuse or exploitation by a fellow worker, the worker must report such concerns through established agency reporting mechanisms. (6) Humanitarian assistance agencies are obliged to create and maintain an environment that prevents sexual exploitation and abuse and promotes the implementation of their code of conduct. Managers at all levels have particular responsibilities to support and develop systems that maintain this environment.

Practices in the Camps
All agencies, including multilateral and nongovernmental agencies, that implement U.S. humanitarian assistance programs should conduct a thorough review of their administrative, management, and employment practices in refugee and displaced persons camps, and:
(1) Significantly increase the number of women involved in the distribution of food and supplies;
(2) Expand opportunities for women to generate legitimate income in the camps, including through employment;
(3) Educate providers and beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance about the seriousness of gender-based exploitation of children;
(4) Improve expatriate supervision and monitoring of daily operations in the camps;
(5) Improve the design and logistics of camps to create a safer environment for women and children;
(6) Keep formal and detailed records, including photographs, of locally hired staff, and ensure that they are adequately paid and trained;
(7) Provide training for humanitarian workers on their obligations under a code of conduct;
(8) Develop systems of accountability to deter and punish gender-based violence, exploitation of children, and other protection violations; and
(9) Ensure that applicants for jobs in camps are screened to prevent individuals who may have been involved in protection violations from being hired by authorities.

Health Services
Complex humanitarian emergencies result in risks for women and girls. Refugee and displaced women face heightened risks of developing complications during pregnancy, suffering a miscarriage, dying, being injured during childbirth, becoming infected with HIV or another sexually transmitted infection, or suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. Despite the heightened risks during an emergency, women’s needs for specialized health services are often overlooked by donors and relief organizations, which are focused on providing food, water, and shelter.

Priority activities and emergency supplies designed to address life-threatening women’s health problems during a complex humanitarian emergency are often not implemented or made available in the early days and weeks of an emergency, the period when such activities and supplies are most needed and effective. The appointed coordinator of such emergencies shall seek to ensure that organizations funded by the U.S. respond to the specific health needs of women affected by the emergency; and identify an organization or individual to facilitate the coordination of the activities needed to respond to the health needs of women as soon as possible.
The Women and Children in Conflict Protection Act of 2003 (S 1001) has been introduced by Sen. Biden (D-DE). It asserts that:
(1) The nature of war has changed dramatically in recent decades, putting women and children at greater risk of death, disease, displacement, and exploitation.

(2) Civilians, particularly women and children, account for the vast majority of those adversely affected by complex humanitarian emergencies, including as refugees and internally displaced persons, and increasingly are targeted by combatants and armed elements for murder, abduction, forced military conscription, involuntary servitude, displacement, sexual abuse and slavery, mutilation, and loss of freedom.

(3) Traditionally, humanitarian response has focused on providing food, medical care, and shelter needs, while placing less emphasis on the safety and security of those affected by humanitarian emergency.

(4) Few well-coordinated efforts exist to prevent and respond to violence against women and children when they are refugees or internally displaced persons.

(5) While the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Department of State are charged with protecting refugees, there is no United States Government agency or international body with a clear mandate to protect internally displaced persons and those at risk of displacement as a result of a complex humanitarian emergency.

(6) There is a substantial need for the protection of women and children to be given a high priority during all complex humanitarian emergencies.

S 1001 seeks to ensure that the U.S. Government has adequate capabilities to support programs to provide for the protection of women and children affected by a complex humanitarian emergency. The bill states that this goal can be accomplished by building the capacities of U.S. Government agencies, multilateral institutions, international nongovernmental organizations, local nongovernmental organizations, and local communities to prevent and respond effectively to gender-based violence and exploitation of children that occur during a complex humanitarian emergency. The bill calls for increased funding as well as improved procedures for the protection of women and children who are internally displaced, made refugees, or otherwise affected by a complex humanitarian emergency. (Excerpted from S 1001. Go to http://thomas.loc.gov)

Suggested Action

Contact your Senator by mail, phone or email to express your concern for the plight of refugees around the world. Ask that special attention be given to women and children because they are often the victims during times of war.

The Honorable————
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

CALL the Capitol Switch board at (202) 224-3121; ask to speak to your Senators.

E-MAIL—Use our Presby Legislative Action Center (PLAC). If there is not an Urgent Alert highlighted on this issue, you can go into PLAC and write your own email message to your Members.

VISIT your Senators are home in district offices at various times of the year. Get a group together and visit him or her to talk about these concerns.

KEEP UP with news accounts of refugees in national stories and through the PC(USA) Web site . World area associates and the Disaster Relief Office in Louisville can answer questions about specific situations and give you ideas for action (888) 728-7228 x5000 or (800) UP-2-DATE.

“Transformation of Churches and Society Through Encounter with New Neighbors”
The 211th General Assembly (1999):
a. Reaffirm[s] the guiding theological and ethical principles contained in the historical review of Presbyterian policy on immigration and refugee issues, and commit to rediscover its identity as a church of the stranger.
(1) Christians are obligated by the loving will of God to seek to ensure that the basic needs of persons for food, clothes, shelter and safety are met (Matt. 25-35-40).
(2) Christians believe in the intrinsic worth of each human as a person made in the image of God.
(3) The Christian confession of Jesus Christ as Lord transforms “strangers” into neighbors who are welcomed into our communities.
(4) Churches are called to ministry with refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants, and to public witness on their behalf.
(5) Christians have the responsibility to challenge and to shape government policy regarding refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.
(6) Love of neighbor requires Christians to seek justice for refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.
(7) Faithfulness to Christ means Christians always live in tension with national values/policies.
(8) Christians may affirm certain values in national and international life as consistent with their theological vision of human community.
b. Reaffirm[s] the guiding policy principles contained in the historical review of Presbyterian policy on immigration and refugee issues and to utilize them to rediscover its identity as a church of the stranger.
(1) Christians should engage in pastoral, compassionate, educational, and prophetic ministries with refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.
(2) The provision of sanctuary for asylum seekers may be an appropriate moral response for churches even though the Untied States government regards this witness as illegal.