|
 |
    |
| About Us | Projects | Contact Us | Centre Personnel | Papers | Useful Links | CRR Shop | UNHCR Advocacy |
Centre for Refugee Research |
Projects include:
1. Women at Risk - Thailand and Kenya
2. Domestic Violence and Refugee Communities - "From Horror to Hope"
3. Hopes Fulfilled or Dreams Shattered -Conference November 20054. UNHCR Advocacy - "Searching for Solutions"
5. Tsunami Relief Work
6. Beijing+10 (archived)
Refugee Women at Risk Project
The report of the 'Risks, Recommendations and Strategies' following the June 2005 consultation with refugee women from Burma in Mae La Camp, Northern Thailand can be downloaded here
In 2003, the Centre's Director Dr Eileen Pittaway, in collaboration with Professor Anthony Zwi and Dr Anna Whelan from the School of Public Health was awarded an ARC Linkages Grant to undertake a 3 year research project.
This three year longitudinal action research based study will provide a unique opportunity to explore the needs of refugee women, the effectiveness of current policy to address these needs, the roadblocks to efficient policy implementation and the role of ideology and discourse in the policy process. In particular the project will address the problems experienced in the effective implementation of the "Women at Risk" (WaR) resettlement program. The WaR program is sponsored by UNHCR. The aim of the program is to identify refugee women at extreme risk of violence and without family protection, and to fast track their removal to a resettlement country. Australia is one of a number of resettlement countries that have a quota of resettlement places within its refugee program for women and children at risk.
This research seeks to identify the range of risk factors, which intersect in the lives of many refugee women and girls to make this level of risk unacceptable. The project will also explore the health dimensions of Women at Risk. Despite the clear recognition of the health needs of refugee women little has been done which directly links this to the concept of risk. The research is being undertaken in two locations that generate and process refugees, Thailand and Kenya. Download the Project Brochure here.
Now in its final year, many of the project objectives have been achieved, and UNHCR Geneva has given its full support, and additional funding to training some of the assessment tools developed as part of the research process. The provision of training for refugee groups has become an integral part of the project. An audio visual presentation of this work and the most recent reports will be available on line at the end of May. A slide show of the training can be found here
Down load the reports of the first year of the work here ….. Thai/Burma Report. Kakuma Report
Full reports of the second year of the project will be available on this site shortly.
The failure of the Women at Risk Program mentioned in these reports continues to be major research focus for the Centre.
Kakuma Camp in Kenya is one of the most isolated and most difficult refugees camps. 95 000 refugees live in the unrelenting heat of this desert settlement. Many have been there for ten years. Continuing conflict in nearby Sudan ensure that a steady stream of refugees keeps reaching the camp. International demands on food aid are eroding the ability of the World Food Program to provide adequate nutrition to these people, adding another layer of despair and danger to a camp in which normal social structures are impossible. The condition of many of the people is very grave, and again the women and young girls are at the greatest risk. Rape is endemic. The UNHCR official in charge of the camp stated "there is not a woman in Kakuma who is not at risk".
The short video on Kakuma Refugee Camp (available from the Centre Shop) continues to be widely used to assist workers providing services to resettled refugees newly arriving from different parts of Africa,
Developments from the project.
New work examining the ethics of refugee research have come out of this project. Centre staff are currently working on a small project examining alternative methods of reciprocal research with refugee communities. An application has been made with colleagues from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW and Macquarie University for ARC Funding to continue this work.
Outcomes from the Women at Risk Project have also been used to assist in tsunami relief efforts in Sri Lanka, and in work addressing domestic violence in refugee families in Australia.
System of Impunity and Shattering Silences
As part of the Women at Risk Research Project, Eileen Pittaway and Linda Bartolomei have been providing Human Rights Documentation Training and Technical support to members of the Womens League of Burma.
The women have now produced two new volumes of their stories.
- Shattering Silences was launched at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva in March.
- Systems of Impunity was launched at UNESCAP in September.
To access the book and find out more about the Womens League of Burma, go to Women of Burma
Partners
The Centre is extremely grateful for the support and assistance provided by a number of partner agencies. These include:
Formal Project Partners
Australian National Committee on Refugee Women (ANCORW) -www.ancorw.org
Asian Women Human Rights Council (AWHRC)
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Kenya and Thailand www.jesref.org
Public Health Association Australia (PHAA) www.phaa.net.au
Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK)Informal Partners
Caritas Australiawww.caritas.org.au
Mercy Refugee Service ( Australia) www.mercysisters.org.au
UNHCR Regional Office Australia) www.unhcr.ch
Domestic Violence and Refugee Communities Project
"From Horror to Hope"
We are delighted to announce that the project to begin response to domestic violence in refugee communities is finally coming to a successful conclusion. There were several hiccups along the way, including the down-sizing of the NSW Department for Women and their relocation as “The Office for Women “ into NSW Premiers Department. However these have all been overcome.
A Comprehensive training module and video called “From Horror to Hope” was launched on 23rd May 2005, and training based on this kit is available to community organisations from staff of the Centre for Refugee Research. Please visit the CRR Shop to order your copy
“The Ultimate Betrayal”
A linked project has been the research for and compilation of a comprehensive 25 000 word report entitled “The Ultimate Betrayal:, which was written by the Centre Director, Eileen Pittaway, for the Australian Domestic Violence Clearinghouse, UNSW, financed by the Federal Office for the Status of Women. That report is available here.
Click here for the original domestic violence project brief
"Hopes Fulfilled or Dreams Shattered"
An international resettlement conference was hosted by the Centre for Refugee Research and ANCORW at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, in November 2005 .
Background papers, copies of presentations and other outcome related information will be added to this CRR website as the Conference Website no longer exists
The full report is available to purchase on CDRom from the Centre Shop .
In January 2005, Eileen Pittaway, Director of the Centre for Refugee Research, and Linda Bartolomei, Senior Research Associate, travelled to Sri Lanka with Professor Anthony Zwi and other academic staff from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine as part of the University response to the Tsunami. Eileen and Linda are working with local women's groups in Sri Lanka, and with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). They are providing training and technical support to assist in theestablishment of programs across the affected areas for women who have lost homes and family, and sadly also suffered from sexual abuse in the aftermath of the disaster. They returned to Sri Lanka in February and will have an ongoing involvement in this project. A preliminary report can be found in the projects section of this website and this will be updated as the work continues.
Click here for a 5 minute video presentation of the work of the Centre in Sri Lanka in January 2005
Resolution on Gender aspects of disaster relief passed in the UN
At the United Nations in New York in February 2005 a team from the Centre for Refugee Research was instrumental in getting a resolution passed. The resolution ensures that responses to the Tsunami disaster of 26th December 2004, and other natural disasters, include gender based strategies and are gender sensitive! This is directly linked to outcomes of the CRR Women at Risk project.
The final resolution can be found at www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/.Follow this link to read our prized copy, Read the Resolution here showing the final amendments from the floor of the UN and the list of governments who raised their flags to support the motion. So many countries supported the resolution it was impossible to list them all on this document.
The Centre for Refugee Research has been working with the Australian National Committee on Refugee Women, and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to prepare input into the 10 year review of the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women.
The Beijing process has been one of the key processes which has been used by ANCORW and CRR to advocate for the rights of refugee women.
An Australian conference was held in June 2004 to prepare Australian input into the process, and representatives from the Centre attended the High Level Ministerial Meeting of governments from the Asia Pacific Region in Bangkok in September 2004. At this meeting staff from the Centre were able to introduce wording on more effective protection for refugee women, and in support of Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) into the Formal Report. This report was taken to the International Review meeting at the 49 th session of United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, in March 2005 New York
click here or on the document to download report.
Click here to visit the Beijing + 10 website: Beijing+10 website.
Centre staff led the documentation team and
compiled thereports for Asia Pacific Womens
Watch.
Click on the following links for Asia Pacific Advocacy positions
in the 12 critical areas of concern:Armed Conflict
Economy
Education & Training
Environment
Girl Child
Health
Human Rights
Institutional Mechanisms
Media
Poverty
Power
Violence Against Women
Specialised documents were prepared to advocate on behalf of refugees and as part of our ongoing collaboration with the Womens League of Burma.
Click on the image to download report
 |
Centre for Refugee Research UNSW Sydney 2052, Australia Tel:(International)+61 2 9385 1961 Email: Cenrefre@unsw.edu.au
ABN 57 195 873 179 CRICOS Provider Code 00098G, Copyright & Disclaimer, UNSW Privacy Policy |
