Women’s Legal Aid Centre

Project: For Women We Stand: Promoting and protecting the rights of refugee women and girls in Tanzania

Location: Western Tanzania

Duration: 1 July 2011 – 30 June 2013

Partner: Women’s Legal Aid Centre (WLAC), Tanzania

The situation for refugees in Tanzania is difficult at best, with the Tanzanian’s government’s policy of Refugee-Free WEstern Tanzania (where most camps are situated) and the closure of camps and withdrawal of services.

Women and girl refugees are particularly vulnerable in such a context and engagement in ‘survival sex’ is both common and linked to increasing numbers of cases of HIV. Sexual and gender-based violence is underreported because women and girls are unaware of their rights and where to access help or services. Female refugees report being raped when they went in the bush for their daily chores like collecting firewood, while others were raped in different circumstances. Most of these crimes go unreported and unpunished.

What Womankind is doing

Together with our partner WLAC, Womankind is working to:

strengthen and scale up refugee paralegal units to take action against sexual and gender based violence and other human rights abuses in two camps in western Tanzania.
sensitise the refugee hosting community to recognise, promote and protect the rights of refugee women, children and men so that they can respond effectively and appropriately to cases of sexual and gender based violence and other human rights abuses.
strengthen the capacity of WLAC both substantively in terms of legal knowledge to protect and promote the rights of refugees, particularly women and children by enhancing their knowledge of international refugee law and institutionally to be able to develop a workable M&E framework as well as advocacy strategies.

Recording popular legal programme on Radio Kwizera

What we have achieved so far

Refugee women have been trained as paralegals in equal numbers with men. They are now also taking up key decision making positions within the camps.
More than half of all the refugee women and girls in the two remaining camps are aware of their rights and know how and where to access justice if these rights have been abused.
Thousands of refugee women and men have learnt they have rights as refugees and understand the impact of gender-based violence on women and girls including domestic violence, property grabbing and harmful cultural practices.
The refugee hosting community including camp wardens, police and the judiciary have a better understanding of international refugee laws and women’s rights and have stated this knowledge has improved their handling of refugee cases.

How you can help

£11 could pay for wellington boots and other essential equipment for volunteers in the refugee camp
£65 could pay for a 3-day training for paralegals
£110 could pay for the production and airtime of one radio programme