Refugees and Refugee Camps

While all refugees face risks, human rights abuses and privations during conflict and displacement, refugee women and girls face particular risks of sexual and other forms of gender-related violence and discrimination. This chapter draws on some of the key academic and policy literature to explore gendered risks for women and girls in the context of refugee camps. Common risks for refugee women and girls are described and the intersections between displacement, gender, identity, power and lack of citizenship in the camp context are briefly explored. It concludes with a brief caution against framing understandings of violence in refugee contexts as having purely cultural origins and highlights the importance of the active engagement of refugee women and refugee communities in identifying problems and finding solutions. Keywords: gender-based violence; refugees; sexual assault/sexual violence; women in development/gender and development