Drafting AGD Sensitive Pledges to Facilitate Solutions
Issues and responses to include in new pledges:
- That all displaced women and girls are included in all decision-making processes for all potential solutions and they must be supported and if necessary, receive training to ensure that they have an equal place at the “planning table”. Particular effort must be made to ensure their voices and ideas are heard and considered, and that they are not just token appointees to decision making processes, including for returns. Women and girls with a disability, Indigenous, stateless, lesbian, bisexual and transgender women must also be actively included in all decision-making processes.
- That the differences in educational opportunities, previous social status, and the impact of childrearing between refugee men and women be taken into account and addressed when devising potential solutions, in particular in developing resettlement and complimentary pathways to ensure that both women and men have equal access to these. Particular attention should be paid to addressing the barriers that women and girls with a disability, Indigenous women and girls, and lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and girls face in accessing solutions.
- That refugee women and girls are not forced to return to a dangerous and unstable future in their home countries until sustainable peace is achieved and sufficient structure is in place to ensure their human rights.
- That existing and new resettlement actors include a dedicated quota of resettlement places for refugee women at risk and their families (including spouses and adult sons). This should target women and girls at ongoing risk of SGBV or facing stigmatisation due to their gender-identity or community shame because they have been raped or forced to sell sex to survive.
- That women and men will have equal access to complementary pathways which include specific support for all women and girls previously denied access to basic education and ensures apprenticeships and traineeships suitable for women and girls, and appropriate to their informal skills, are also accessible. Particular attention should be paid to addressing the barriers that women and girls with a disability, Indigenous women and girls, and lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and girls face in accessing these pathways.
Examples of possible pledges:
- A pledge inclusive of Women and Girls across all Age and Diversity Groups:
We x State commits to including a women at risk quota in our resettlement program and a gender quota in our complimentary pathways program. We will ensure that women and girls have equal access to each program and will ensure that women and girls with a disability, Indigenous women and girls, and lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and girls are actively included in both programs. This Pledge will address …… Plus issues from above.
- A pledge inclusive of all AGD groups:
We x UN agency commit that displaced peoples are included in all decision-making processes for all potential solutions. We will ensure the equal participation of women and men in all their diversities and were necessary provide support and training to ensure that women and members of marginalised communities including people with a disability, Indigenous and Stateless persons and members of LGBTIQ communities have an equal place at the “planning table”. This Pledge will address …… Plus issues from above.