Women and the 1951 Refugee Convention: Fifty Years of Seeking Visibility

This article reviews the progress of women refugees under the 1951 Refugee Convention. The main argument is that the lack of inclusion of gender within the Refugee Convention is exacerbated by the same gap in the international legal system. The article begins with a review of the Convention itself and the feminist critique of efforts to incorporate women within the refugee definitions. The authors argue that the efforts to include women within the international legal protection regime do not account for many of the practical barriers facing women in making their particular refugee claims. [Descriptors: Migration - Refugees and Immigration, International]