At Women’s Link Worldwide, we seek to highlight the ways in which women, girls, and gender diverse people – existing at the intersection of varied marginalizations – uniquely live the refugee and migrant experience. We’ve borne witness to how their gender plays a role in their risk of trafficking, sexual violence, inadequate responses to their reproductive health needs, and other human rights violations.

In our work, and the work of our partners, we’ve seen how gender has deeply influenced the experiences of women and girls as refugees and migrants. The war in Ukraine, for instance, highlights how gender makes every conflict situation unique. Women and children make up 90% of those fleeing the country and experience certain challenges along the way, including the need for reproductive health services. Women and young girls arriving in countries such as Poland are encountering restrictive laws that make it difficult for them to access safe and legal abortion. Working with local partners, we seek to make access easier and to advocate for those who are caught up in anti-rights efforts to limit access by criminalizing those who aid people seeking abortions such as Justyna Wydrzyńska.You can learn more about Justyna’s case here.

In Latin America, Colombia has seen a large influx of people fleeing the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. There, we are litigating Evaluna’s case (name changed to protect privacy), a Venezuelan migrant woman who had an unplanned child after she was denied an abortion as she did not have proper documentation despite this not being a hindrance under Colombian law. After exhausting all the remedies available under Colombian law, we have taken the matter before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. This case seeks to create a precedent that protects the rights of all women, girls and gender diverse people.

Read the full article about the risks for refugee and displaced women at Global Washington.