Summary
Seminar One: A Cold Climate for Refugee Women?
This was the first in a series of free online seminars hosted by the Women in Refugee Law (WiRL) network on the 2023/24 theme of “Refuge in a cold climate: the impact on women”. These are public events, ideal for anyone whose work relates to refugee or asylum-claiming women or with an interest in the needs and experiences of refugee women. This series will draw on WiRL’s global membership to apply a gendered lens in analysing the impact of increasing hostility to refugees in different states and contexts.
The seminar featured two presentations:
1. “Saving brown women from brown men? Navigating the politics of refugee protection in the interests of all”
Professor Heaven Crawley
Head of Equitable Development and Migration at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research in New York and a post-colonial feminist researcher who has worked on issues of gender and refugee protection since the late 1980s.
Heaven Crawley Presentation 27.11.23
2. “Addressing challenges, unlocking opportunities: UNHCR’s approach to gender equality and the empowerment of refugee women in practice”
Sandra Sierfert Stroem
Associate Protection Officer and Gender Advisor in the Division of International Protection at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva.
Sandra Stroem Presentation 27.11.23
Presentations were followed by a discussion chaired by Loraine Mponela (WiRL co-convenor).
