World Refugee Day is a time to celebrate the strength and resilience of refugees around the world. It is also a time to bring attention to ways in which the humanitarian community can better meet the needs of displaced people. This World Refugee Day, we reflect on the state of displaced persons with disabilities, and look forward towards the future of disabilility inclusion in the humanitarian field.
The Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) seeks to improve the lives and protect the rights of persons with disabilities, including women, children and youth, displaced by conflict and crisis. Over the past 18 months, with support from AusAID and other donors, the WRC has been providing technical advice to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to translate operational guidance on Working with Persons with Disabilities in Forced Displacement into practice at field levels.
As humanitarian agencies upscale responses to meet the ever growing and complex needs of populations affected by the crisis in Syria, the WRC is now supporting UNHCR and their partners in Lebanon to ensure that persons with disabilities are not missed in protection responses and humanitarian assistance. Our recent field assessment identified that Syrian refugees with disabilities and their families have a variety of unmet needs, both medical and social, which increases their risk of protection concerns. They also lack access to programs, such as education, livelihoods or women’s empowerment, which might in turn reduce vulnerability. Our consultations with Syrian refugees with disabilities, however, also identified the skills and capacities which they can contribute to programs and the wider community. As suggested by one young man who we met in March: “I want to feel productive – maybe we could do theatre or some other program. I used to do many things in Syria, but now I am doing nothing … Let’s be creative – we need a space and then we can do things together.”
Despite formidable challenges and limited resources, humanitarian agencies in Lebanon recognize and want to do more to ensure the rights and protection of refugees with disabilities in the current response. There are examples of agencies taking positive steps, such as partnering with local Disabled People’s Organizations in community center activities, and forming discussion groups for persons with new impairments as a result of war related injuries. Later this month, the WRC in partnership with UNHCR, will run workshops with different humanitarian stakeholders to strengthen both case management systems and inclusion in community center activities for Syrian refugees with disabilities in Lebanon.
In any crisis setting, women and girls with disabilities face multiple levels of discrimination, which places them at increased risk of violence, exploitation and abuse. Inclusion of survivors with disabilities in gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response programs remains a significant gap in humanitarian response. And there is a dearth of tested tools and resources on disability inclusion for field workers engaged in GBV programming. With support from AusAID, the Women’s Refugee Commission and International Rescue Committee recently launched a two year project to address the evidence gap in effective strategies for disability inclusion GBV programs.
Australia’s Humanitarian Action Policy highlights the rights and specific needs of persons with disabilities. As we progress in our understanding and implementation of disability inclusion in humanitarian settings, there will be new and evolving gaps, as well as opportunities, which must be addressed to promote continued improvement in the quality and effectiveness of humanitarian practice. AusAID plays an important role in supporting agencies like the WRC to research and respond to such gaps in the humanitarian sector and address growing demand from field agencies for technical support.
Emma Pearce is the Disability Program Officer for the Women’s Refugee Commission, and is currently providing technical advice to UNHCR on disability inclusion in the Syrian refugee response in Lebanon.