PRESS CONFERENCE BY GERMANY LAUNCHING REPORT ON FUEL ALTERNATIVES

TO FIREWOOD AND PROTECTION STRATEGIES FOR DISPLACED WOMEN

 

The issue of firewood collection and alternative fuel sources must be coordinated in United Nations humanitarian response and protection activities, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference, sponsored by Germany’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, to launch the report entitled “Beyond Firewood: Fuel Alternatives and Protection Strategies for Displaced Women and Girls”.

Thoraya Obaid, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said that that, while it was the daily “nitty-gritty” issues that often mattered most for women’s security, it was, nevertheless, difficult to get those issues on the agenda, as they were viewed as women’s concerns, only.

The risks associated with firewood collection had been known for many years, she added.  The report was welcome, in that it brought forward concrete recommendations to combat widespread violence against women and girls, as they ventured out to collect firewood at great personal peril.  Fuel alternatives and firewood collection were important aspects of prevention that urgently needed to be addressed.

Wolfgang Trautwein, Germany’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said it was only by understanding the day-to-day lives of women and girls, could special measures be adopted to protect them from gender based violence in situations of armed conflict.  With the report’s official presentation last Thursday and the celebration of International Women’s Day on 8 March, it was timely to recall landmark Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security -- the first Council resolution to address the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women and girls, and highlight the undervalued contributions of women in preventing war and restoring peace.  The resolution also called on the international community to observe how armed conflict affected women, in particular.

He said the report of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children provided a comprehensive look at an important aspect of the lives of women in armed conflict, namely the collection of firewood.  Women and girls risked their lives when collecting wood to cook and provide for their families.  The report also outlined strategies to protect them from that danger, and offered practical, sustainable solutions.

Two cases studies in the report, one on Darfur and the other on Nepal, clearly highlighted the issue, he added.  It was important that the international community continue to advocate the inclusion of safe access to fuel in future resolutions.  Germany was fully committed in that regard.

Sharing the story of a 13-year old girl and her 16-year old sister who had been shot by the Janjaweed when looking for firewood, Carolyn Makinson, Director of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, said the case of Darfur provided just the latest example of what happened every day in situations of displacement around the world, where women and young girls were forced to look for firewood, both to cook the evening meal and to sell to meet other basic household needs.  When women ventured out, they were often attacked by marauding factions, people in local communities, and even sometimes by the guards whose job it was to protect them.

Such acts were carried out with impunity, she said, as the attackers knew they would not be caught.  Even worse, women and girls knew what would happen to them when they ventured out.  When asked why women and girls were sent out to collect firewood, communities had said that men would be killed, whereas women would only be raped.  Communities were living with the knowledge that such attacks would likely be the fate of women and girls.

The report detailed specific measures that could be taken to change the current situation, she said.  While appropriate steps would be different in different places, measures included basic physical protection, such as sending patrols out with women and girls as they collected firewood.  Another measure was to consider bringing in fuel in the early days of a humanitarian crisis, until a set of measures were set in place.  There were a variety of alternative fuels, some of which could be made locally, fuel efficient stoves, such as solar powered stoves, food stuffs that required less cooking, and cooking techniques that required less time.

Another important finding of the report was the need to provide income-generating opportunities for refugees and displaced populations, she said.  Even if the problem of cooking food was solved, if women did not have alternative means of earning a living, they would still be forced to collect firewood to sell it.

The good news, she said, was that there were many levers that could be pushed.  Accountability and clear responsibility was needed, however.  The report recommended that the United Nations agency responsible for any particular emergency, designate a single organization to lead and coordinate efforts across all sectors.  In that way, it would be possible to know who was responsible for thinking about the various solutions.

Sharing her experience with Bhutanese refugee women in Nepal, Anjana Shakya, Chairperson and Founder of the Himalayan Human Rights Monitors, said the majority of the 169,000 Bhutanese refugees lived in seven camps in the eastern part of Nepal.  The majority of them had arrived in Nepal in the early 1990s, fleeing increasing harassment of ethnic Nepalese in Bhutan by the ruling Government led by King Jigme Singhe Wangchuck.  Most had lived in camps for over a decade.  Thousands of children had been born in those camps, never having seen the land their parents still considered home.

In Nepal, refugee women and girls foraged for wood in the forests surrounding the camps, she said.  They were harassed, gang raped and even murdered in the forests by those trying to protect the forest from depletion and by opportunists who knew they would not be punished for their crimes.  It occurred, however, less frequently than in many other refugee and internally displaced persons camps around the world, partly due to the policy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to provide fuel, and partly as a result of the local culture.

She noted that, in order to prevent tension between refugees and the local population, in 1992, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had begun providing a weekly ration to all refugee families.  At the time, kerosene had been cheap and easy to obtain.  The price had more than doubled in the last two years, however.  In addition, strikes and blockades, imposed as a result of the Maoist insurgency, had also created a frequent scarcity of fuel.  Thus, the UNHCR and the Lutheran World Federation had undertaken alternative fuel development programmes, including honeycomb and beehive briquettes.  Refugee women had resisted alternative fuels, however, as kerosene was easy to use, and because they depended on its sale, as a key source of income to subsidize other needs, such as clothing and education.

Unfortunately, for many years, Nepalese law had prohibited refugees from engaging in any type of paid work or from selling the goods they produced, even within the confines of the camps, she added.  Many refugee women and girls had put themselves at risk by selling kerosene, collecting firewood as a fuel replacement, or subjecting themselves to abuse, including sexual violence, by working illegally.  Recently, many young women had left the camps to prostitute themselves.  Without safe opportunities to earn income, women and girls would remain both dependent and vulnerable.

A key recommendation was the need for the international community to pressure the Government of Nepal to change the law prohibiting refugees from engaging in income-generating activities within the camp, she said.  Other recommendations concerned joint initiatives on alternative fuel production between the refugees and host community.  UNHCR and its partners should issue blankets and warm clothes in winter, reducing the need for firewood and kerosene for heating purposes.  The World Food Programme, the UNHCR and the Lutheran World Federation should promote the use and distribution of fuel efficient rations and cooking techniques to reduce the overall amount of fuel needed.

Ms. Obaid noted that, as part of the initial high-level mission in April 2004 to Darfur, UNFPA had strongly advocated the need to take up fuel and fodder as priority concerns for the United Nations humanitarian response to prevent gender-based violence.  That was a time when fighting was displacing hundreds of thousands of people, mostly women and children.  As the situation had worsened in recent weeks -- even spilling over into Chad -- the issue of protecting women refugees and internally displaced persons on both sides of the border remained as urgent as ever.

In Darfur, the UNFPA was currently working with the African Union civilian police to set up escorts to ensure security of women and girls during firewood collection, to establish monitoring in the internally displaced persons camps and to increase deployment of female civilian police staff.  At the same time, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and OXFAM had established training programmes on the use of fuel efficient stoves.  They were also providing security at many water points.  Women’s centres had been established in internally displaced persons camps to provide psychological support for the survivors of sexual violence.

UNFPA would continue to advocate the coordination of fuel related initiatives in refugee and internally displaced persons settings, she said.  The United Nations system must work with the NGO community on the issue.  UNFPA would continue to work with partners for the provision of transportation for women and girls to fuel and firewood collection points, and for security forces along collection routes.  Promoting fuel efficient stoves, non-wood based fuel sources and income-earning opportunities for women and refugees were key issues.

She added that UNFPA would also continue to work for better data collection, as a huge data gap existed on the incidence of gender-based violence.  In its coordination capacity at the field level, UNFPA would do its utmost to ensure that such critical issues were addressed.  The need to end impunity and reduce the trade in small arms was also critical.  Fuel alternatives and protection strategies for displaced women and girls were not only women’s issues, but were vital humanitarian, security and human rights issues.  In that regard, she encouraged the donor community to provide funding for the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence in their humanitarian response, including through fuel-related initiatives.

The promotion and protection of women’s and girls’ human rights required greater attention, she added, as, when their rights were affected, entire families and communities were also affected.  The full implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 was needed, as it was only by addressing those issues, increasing women’s participation in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, and preventing those violations that the prospects for real recovery and peace could be increased in the long run.

Asked where the kerosene came from, Ms. Anjana said that in the case of Nepal, UNHCR bought Government-subsidized kerosene.

Asked whether Nepal’s law prohibiting income-generating activities inside camps was unique, Ms. Obaid said she had not seen many income-generating activities in the situations she had experienced, as the possibility of linking to the market was often difficult.  However, she did not know of a case such as Nepal.  It was often more an issue of circumstances, rather than the law.  In some countries, women were able to carry out income-generating activities.  She had seen that, most recently, in the camps for the Indian Ocean tsunami survivors, where women were producing cement blocks for building and food products.

Ms. Anjana noted that, in the early 1990s, the Bhutanese refugees had been allowed to engage in many different income-generation programmes.  The host community in those areas, however, had complained, because they were selling their goods cheaper than the host communities.  That had been the reason for the law.

In response to another question, she said the host community did sell goods in the camp.

Ms. Makinson added that the situation varied from place to place.  In Guinea, for example, Liberian refugees had been integrated into the local population.  In camps for Rwandan refugees in the United Republic of Tanzania, refugee movements were highly restricted.  It would be difficult for them to leave the camp to sell things or to be hired.  It was an area of international policy that needed to move forward.  In that regard, the United Nations should raise such issues in its bilateral relations with host Governments.

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For information media • not an official record