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Women Around the World

Women Around the World examines the relationship between the advancement of women and U.S. foreign policy interests, including prosperity and stability.

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Georgia's President Salome Zourabichvili addresses participants of a rally organized by supporters of opposition parties to protest against the result of a recent parliamentary election won by the ruling Georgian Dream party, in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Georgia's President Salome Zourabichvili addresses participants of a rally organized by supporters of opposition parties to protest against the result of a recent parliamentary election won by the ruling Georgian Dream party, in Tbilisi, Georgia. REUTERS/Irakli

Women This Week: President Salome Zourabichvili Leads Protest Against Pro-Russia Ruling Party 

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post covers October 26 to November 1.

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Gender
Court Order Protects Women Refugees (For Now)
As I’ve discussed previously, President Trump’s Executive Order (EO), “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” had particularly grave consequences for women refugees. Under the EO, all refugees were suspended from entering the United States for 120 days, which adversely affected women in particular. The EO also suspended all citizens from seven targeted countries—Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen —from entering the United States, and it banned refugees from Syria indefinitely. Women refugees often flee sexual violence and other persecution, and without refugee protection, women are often stranded in refugee or temporary settlement camps where they face a heightened risk of sexual and physical violence. In light of this, the nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in Washington last week and yesterday’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to uphold that injunction are good news for women refugees. Under the injunction, the provision in Trump’s EO suspending refugee admissions is on hold for now, and refugees are once again allowed to enter the United States and seek resettlement as planned. However, President Trump has threatened to fight the decision, indicating he may appeal to the Supreme Court. While the Ninth Circuit opinion was not a full-fledged decision on the merits (as it was merely reviewing whether or not to lift the nationwide injunction), as Jen Daskal helpfully notes on Just Security, the court drew a number of important conclusions. First, while it found that the president’s power over immigration is entitled to substantial deference, the court rejected the Trump administration’s claim that this power is unreviewable, particularly when constitutional rights are at stake. Second, the Ninth Circuit noted due process rights cover all persons in the United States. Third, the court indicated its concerns that the EO is intended to disfavor Muslims, potentially violating the Establishment and Equal Protection Clauses, but ultimately noted it would “reserve consideration of these claims” until the merits have been fully briefed. Fourth, the court emphasized deep skepticism of the national security claims asserted by the government, noting that the administration had presented “no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the Order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States.” In fact, ten top national security experts from across parties and across several administrations filed a declaration with the court indicating that the Executive Order did not, in fact, achieve national security goals and may, in fact, undermine them. Indeed, refugees scheduled to arrive in the United States have already undergone an intensive vetting process.
Wars and Conflict
Women Around the World: This Week
Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post, covering from January 26 to February 6, was compiled with support from Becky Allen, Anne Connell, and Alyssa Dougherty. Trump administration order affects women and children refugees The U.S. State Department revealed last week that over 60,000 visas were revoked as a result of President Trump’s executive order banning travel to the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries and barring refugee admissions for 120 days. Those affected include tens of thousands of women and children, who comprise 72 percent of all refugees and over 78 percent of Syrian refugees resettled in the U.S. in 2016.  Studies confirm that refugee women and children are at significant risk and experience high incidence of rape, forced prostitution, child marriage, and trafficking.  Refugee admissions to the U.S. have temporarily resumed, following a stay of the administration’s executive order issued in federal district court; however, a pending government appeal has left the future of the U.S. refugee resettlement program uncertain. Turks and Caicos elects first female premier The island territory of Turks and Caicos has set a regional precedent for women’s political leadership by electing the first female premier in its history, Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson of the People’s Democratic Movement party. Campaigning on issues of open, transparent governance and social justice, she beat out an initial pool of fifty-two other candidates to reach the post. Women in Turks and Caicos also hold several other top government positions, including deputy governor, attorney general, chief justice, chief magistrate, director of public prosecutions, and five of seven permanent secretaries. Turks and Caicos now leads the region in representation of women in executive and cabinet-level government positions, though a number of Caribbean nations—including Bermuda, Dominica, and Guyana—have also strengthened policies to promote women’s leadership in recent years. Austria bans face-covering veils Austria is the latest European country to propose a ban on full face-covering veils in public spaces, a move by the ruling coalition responsive to the anti-immigrant far-right populist parties that nearly claimed the presidency in 2016. The ban is largely symbolic in nature, with reports suggesting that as few as 150 women would be affected, given that most practicing Muslims in Austria have Turkish or Balkan roots where full veils are less prevalent. Austria’s new policy is similar to bans on the niqab and burqa introduced by France and Belgium in 2011, and a partial ban introduced in the Netherlands in 2015. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also voiced support for a similar policy in recent months, asserting that “the full veil is not appropriate here, [and] should be forbidden wherever legally possible.” Following Austria’s announcement this week, Ibrahim Olgun, president of Austria’s Islamic Faith Community, openly criticized the policy, stressing that it undermines women’s freedom and injures the relationship between the Austrian government and Muslim communities. Thousands of people took to Vienna’s streets this week to protest the new legislation.      
Development
International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM
Today, Feb. 6, 2017, marks International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital MutilationLearn more about the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting through these five publications from the Women and Foreign Policy program, and join the conversation on social media with @CFR_WFP to #EndFGM. Why the U.S. should help end FGM In a guest blog post on Women Around the World, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Cathy Russell argues that preventing and responding to FGM is critical to U.S. foreign policy because the practice harms girls’ health, limits access to education, and contributes to intergenerational poverty. The U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence Globally, Russell asserts, makes clear that combating FGM requires that U.S. officials engage in a multi-sectoral response—one that supports community-led initiatives, changes to social norms, and political commitments. Read the blog post on Women Around the World » A woman walks past a building in Brikama, Gambia, 30 km (20 miles) south of the capital Banjul. Child marriage and FGM occur frequently in Gambia’s urban centers, and at much higher rates in rural areas. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly Gambia enacts historic legislation to end FGM In an interview for the Five Questions series, Dr. Isatou Touray, an activist for women’s rights and the first female candidate for the presidency of Gambia, comments on recently-enacted bans on female genital mutilation and child marriage in the small West African nation. Read the interview on Women Around the World » A mother carrying an infant on her back attends a meeting of women from several communities eradicating female genital cutting, in the western Senegalese village of Diabougo, September 10, 2007. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly Rural community education reduces FGM prevalence Molly Melching, founder and CEO of Tostan, shares recent research evaluating the effectiveness of legislation banning FGM in rural communities, highlighting a 2014 study showing that legal bans are only effective when accompanied by grassroots activism. “As a direct result of Tostan’s [community education] program,” Melching writes, “over 7,600 communities in eight countries across Africa have publicly declared their intention to abandon FGC and child and forced marriage. This means that three million people now live in communities that have chosen—collectively and of their own volition—to end these harmful practices.” Read the blog post on Women Around the World » Jaha Dukureh (R) and Maryum Saifee (L) at the 2016 Time 100 Gala. Photo courtesy of Maryum Saifee. Enlisting religious leaders in anti-FGM efforts In a blog post on Women Around the World, Senior Fellow Catherine Powell reflects on a CFR roundtable meeting and film screening with Jaha Dukureh, named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2016 for her work advocating against female genital mutilation. During the roundtable, Dukureh stressed the importance of working with both religious leaders as well as with men and boys to change perceptions about FGM. Read the blog post on Women Around the World» More than 150 world leaders gather for the plenary meeting of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit at the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, New York September 27, 2015. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri FGM and the Sustainable Development Goals In a 2016 CFR report, Senior Fellow and Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program Rachel Vogelstein analyzes the world’s new development framework and proposes a new funding mechanism to finance its gender equality targets. The sustainable development agenda, she writes, is a promising leap forward from its predecessor framework, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Sustainable Development Goal Five, focused on gender equality, for the first time creates time-bound targets related to a range of issues—from property rights and financial inclusion, to ending violence against women and FGM—that previously were overlooked.  Read the Policy Innovation Memorandum »
  • Human Rights
    How Trump’s Executive Order Harms Women Refugees
    In the midst of the uproar over President Trump’s executive order (EO), entitled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” an important element missing from the debate is the disproportionate impact it will have on women. While the federal government provides limited data on women refugees, the State Department reported that in fiscal year 2016, over 72 percent of refugees resettled in the U.S. were women and children. The executive order, signed on January 27, 2017, suspends the Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days and bans all citizens from seven “countries of concern”—Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—from entering the United States for ninety days. The order also indefinitely suspends entry of Syrian refugees into the United States. Other observers have persuasively outlined the legal and ethical limitations of the EO and lawyers have successfully challenged aspects of the order in court. Lost in the kerfuffle is the particularly adverse impact of the ban on women. A recently released Women’s Refugee Commission report notes that preventing refugee resettlement punishes women who are fleeing persecution and violence from some of the worst conflicts in the world, including in Syria and Iraq, where, as I’ve written before, the self-proclaimed Islamic State uses rape and other forms of sexual violence against women as weapons of war. For many women refugees, who have already gone through the refugee vetting process, the executive order means they will be forced to remain in refugee or temporary settlement camps, which present a host of dangers in addition to the ones they have already faced. Women and girls in refugee camps are at heightened risk of both sexual and physical violence, exploitation, sexual harassment, trafficking, and forced marriage. Since the United States is the largest refugee resettlement country in the world, the executive order also has destabilizing effects globally, as it affects not just the U.S. resettlement infrastructure, but the refugee resettlement landscape worldwide. The United States has for decades run an extensive refugee resettlement program—also known as third-country resettlement—to provide people fleeing humanitarian disaster and persecution with legal and physical protections, and the same rights and privileges enjoyed by all U.S. citizens. The strict parameters that regulate resettlement programs around the world mean that only 1 percent of refugees have the opportunity to find permanent refuge in a third country—the vast majority of the world’s 65.3 million people displaced from their homes reside in crowded urban centers and sprawling refugee camps in host countries like Jordan, Turkey, and Kenya. In most of these countries, temporary protection systems prohibit refugees from accessing more permanent forms of residency or citizenship—this limits access to education, employment, and healthcare, which has particularly detrimental effects on female refugees. This is one reason why the U.S. resettlement program has historically accepted such a high proportion of women and children. Additionally, U.S. actions may create a precedent that other nations follow. If other countries follow suit in closing the door to refugees, women refugees who are already at risk may well become even more vulnerable. And as the Women’s Refugee Commission report points out, “The EO forces refugees, asylum seekers and women and children desperately seeking safety and protection into the shadows, making them extremely vulnerable to traffickers, smugglers, and criminal organizations.” For decades, U.S. administrations on both sides of the aisle have ensured that the United States act as a global leader in refugee protection. The negative impact of Trump’s EO has been staggering. As the government concedes that already 60,000 visas have been revoked—and the ban has only been in place one week. A policy that fuels uncertainty and indefinitely bans the entry of the world’s most vulnerable refugees, including women and children fleeing war-torn Syria, is counter to these values.
  • Human Rights
    U.S. and International Policy to Protect Refugees: A Timeline
    The Trump Administration’s executive order on immigration indefinitely bars Syrian refugees from entering the United States, temporarily blocks citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, and suspends all refugee admissions for 120 days. This order comes at a time when over 65 million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) worldwide have been uprooted from their homes. A disproportionate number of these refugees are women and children, many of whom face grave risks, from sexual violence and human trafficking to inadequate nutrition and healthcare. Of the 12 million people displaced by the current conflict in Syria, nearly two-thirds are women and children. In the United States, according to official State Department figures, over 78 percent of the Syrian refugees and 72 percent of all refugees admitted to the country as of 2016 were women or children. In the wake of the Trump Administration’s immigration order, learn more about the history of U.S. and international policy to protect refugees—including women and children—around the world:   1948     United Nations Declaration of Human Rights   In December 1948, the newly-formed United Nations (UN) adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first international document to assert “the dignity and worth of the human person and [the] equal rights of men and women.” Article 14 of the declaration recognizes the right of all persons to seek asylum from persecution.   Representatives of 50 countries gather at the 1945 conference in San Francisco, California. (AP)     1951     UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees   In the devastating aftermath of WWII, the 1951 Refugee Convention, ratified by 145 state parties, becomes a landmark legal document, defining the term ‘refugee’  and outlining the rights of the displaced as well as the legal obligations of all states to protect them. The convention establishes the principle of non-refoulement, reflecting an international consensus that it is unlawful to force refugees or asylum-seekers to return to a country in which they may be persecuted. While the U.S. government committed itself to implementing the principles of the convention, it would not formally ratify an international refugee framework until 1967.   Newly arrived refugees stand in their tent quarters at Beit Lid after arriving from Europe following the Nazi Holocaust of World War II. REUTERS     1967     UN Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees   In October 1967, 146 countries sign on to a UN protocol on international refugees to expand the temporal and geographic scope of the 1951 convention, which previously focused on those displaced by the violence and genocide of WWII. The United States joined the international refugee regime by ratifying the protocol in Congress, by which it committed to co-operating with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees “or any other agency of the United Nations which may succeed it,” to applying the provisions of the protocol, and to communicating to the UN Secretary-General any new national laws or regulations that affect the application of the protocol.   Iraqi Kurdish refugees collect bread from a dirt road in Isikveren refugee camp in Turkey. REUTERS/Jim Hollander     1980     U.S. Refugee Act   Amidst mass migration of Vietnamese—many of whom had suffered years of imprisonment, discrimination, and sexual violence—the U.S. Refugee Act enacted in 1980 expanded the definition of a ‘refugee’ and founded the U.S. refugee resettlement program that exists today. Through the act, Congress signaled its intention to conform U.S. refugee law to international legal frameworks and established a permanent procedure for the admission of refugees of “special humanitarian concern.” The act raised the refugee cap from 17,400 to 50,000 people admitted each fiscal year and established the Office of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The act facilitated the United States’ acceptance of over 700,000 Vietnamese refugees—including tens of thousands of families—between 1975 and 1996.   The flag of former South Vietnam is draped over the shoulders of Vietnamese refugee Bai-Binh Ton-Thap as he stands next to 58,300 yellow ribbons tied to a fence surrounding the flight deck of the USS Midway as the ship commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the fall of Saigon. REUTERS/Mike Blake     1995     Dayton Accords   The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Accords or Dayton Agreement, was formally signed by international parties to end the brutal three-and-a-half year Bosnian War, one of the Yugoslav Wars. The use of rape against Bosnian women and girls was widespread, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia would later declare that such “systematic rape” was a crime against humanity second only to the war crime of genocide. Over 700,000 people fled war-torn Yugoslavia for the EU, with 400,000 settling in Germany, and the U.S. began resettling large numbers of refugee families—primarily women and children—from Bosnia.   Aroup of Bosnian refugees from Srebrenica walk to be transported from eastern Bosnian village of Potocari to Kladanj, July 13, 1995. REUTERS     2016     UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants   In 2016, former U.S. President Barack Obama led efforts to hold a high-level summit on the margins of the 71st United Nations General Assembly meeting to address a growing international migration crisis, with the aim of bringing countries together behind a more just, efficient, and coordinated approach. Donor countries committed to a $4.5 billion total increase in global humanitarian financing—including a $1 billion increase by the United States. At the summit, 193 UN member states signed onto the New York Declaration, a plan to improve global response to movements of refugees and migrants.  Numerous sessions addressed the heightened dangers faced by displaced women and children, such as significant health risks, forced marriage, trafficking, and sexual abuse.   A refugee woman carrying her child walks under heavy rainfall at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 21, 2016. REUTERS/Kostas Tsironis