Gender and Persecution: Protecting Women under International Refugee Law
![handle is hein.journals/geoimlj7 and id is 523 raw text is: ARTICLE
GENDER AND PERSECUTION: PROTECTING
WOMEN UNDER INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE
LAW
LINDA CIPRIANI*
I. INTRODUCTION
The human displacement resulting from World Wars I and II led to
the adoption, first by the League of Nations and later by the United
Nations, of international agreements to protect refugees.' Today, the
international law on refugees consists of the Statute of the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Statute),2 the Con-
vention Relating to the Status of Refugees (Convention),' and the
Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (Protocol).4 These treaties
define refugee as a person with a well-founded fear of persecution
due to his or her race, religion, nationality, political opinion or member-
. Linda Cipriani teaches international law as a foreign expert at the South Central
Institute of Politics and Law in Wuhan, China.
The author wishes to thank Hilary Josephs and Peter Herzog and especially Donna Arzt for
their guidance and assistance in the preparation of this article.
1. Arthur Helton, Refugee Protection Under International Law, A.L.I. 2 (1989). The first
such protections were extended by the League of Nations after World War I to Russian and
Armenian refugees. The post-World War II era saw the adoption of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights in 1948 which guarantees the right to seek asylum from persecution. The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217, U.N. GAOR, 3rd Sess., U.N. Doc.
A/810, at art. 14 (1948). The U.N. originally established the International Refugee Organiza-
tion (IRO) and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees to deal with
problems resulting from displacement. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees replaced
the IRO in 1950. Helton, supra, at 2.
2. STATUTE OF THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES,
G.A. Res. 428(V), U.N. GAOR, 5th Sess., Annex, U.N. Doc. HCR/INF/1/Rev.3 (1950)
[hereinafter STATUTE].
3. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, July 28, 1951, 189 U.N.T.S. 137
[hereinafter Convention].
4. Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Jan. 21, 1967, 19 U.S.T. 6223, 606 U.N.T.S.
267 [hereinafter Protocol].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/geoimlj7&div=39&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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