In 2015 Europe has seen for the first time after the second world war massive movement of refugees and migrants, men and boys, women and girls escaping violence, destruction and seeking protection. And under the Refugee Convention from 1951, related protocols and other international agreements, they are entitled to receive the protection. How well the guaranteed rights of refugee and migrant persons are protected in practice has proven to be a significant concern and UNHCR, UNFPA and Women`s Refugee Commission embarked on a week-long assessment study in Greece and FYR of Macedonia.
According to the authors “Single women traveling alone or with children, pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls, unaccompanied children, early-married children — sometimes themselves with newborn babies — persons with disabilities, and elderly men and women are among those who are particularly at risk and require a coordinated and effective protection response.”
In this document, you can find more about the objectives and the methodology of this assessment mission, the initial findings on women and girls protection risk and response as well as a set of recommendations. In relation to the sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), report notices there is no effective way to prevent or respond to SGBV. There is no survivor-focused approach, but also interviewed government agencies` representatives and humanitarian actors show a lack of awareness on how widespread SGBV is at all. This is partly result of very few reported incidents, leaving impression SGBV occurs only occasionally. In practice, victims avoid disclosing cases of SGBV unless there are such health implications that make this absolutely necessary which creates significant challenges in terms of ensuring adequate protection and care. The authors warn, however, that according to the recent Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) GBV Guidelines, “all humanitarian personnel ought to assume GBV is occurring and threatening affected populations; treat is as a serious and life-threatening problem; and take action based on sector recommendations in these Guidelines, regardless of the presence or absence of concrete evidence”.