Facts
Why We’re Here
The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children was founded in 1989 to address the problems faced by refugees and internally displaced people.
- Four out of five of the world’s 35 million refugees are women, children and young people.
- Children and young people make up approximately 50 percent of all refugees.
Women and adolescent girls in refugee settings are especially vulnerable to exploitation, rape and abuse. - Children and young people often miss out on years of education. They are the targets of abuse, military recruitment and abduction.
- Women, children and young people who flee persecution and human rights abuses by seeking asylum in the U.S. are often imprisoned, subjected to inhumane conditions and denied access to legal representation.
Who Are We?
The Women's Commission has a diverse professional staff of 30.
The Women's Commission's board of directors and advisors include women working
at senior levels in human rights and refugee organizations, as well as in
education, medicine, law, journalism, government and communications. Many
of them are former refugees. The Commission was founded in 1989 by Liv Ullmann,
Catherine O'Neill, Susan Martin and others. To learn more about the history
of the Women's Commission, read 15
Years of Advocacy and Action 
.
The Women’s Commission is affiliated with and is legally part of the
International Rescue Committee, a non-profit
501(c)(3) organization, but does not receive direct financial support from
the IRC.
What Do We Do?
The Women's Commission is an expert resource and advocacy organization that monitors the care and protection of refugee women and children. It speaks out on issues of concern to refugee and displaced women, children and adolescents, who have a critical perspective in bringing about change but often do not have access to governments and policy makers. It also provides opportunities for refugee women and youth to speak for themselves through briefings, testimony, participation in field assessments and international conferences.
How do we work?
The Women's Commission serves as a watchdog and an expert resource, offering solutions and providing technical assistance. Staff and board members carry out an active program of advocacy, making recommendations on how to improve assistance to refugee women and children to policy makers in the United States government and UN agencies, and to NGOs.
Professional staff--experts in health care, anthropology, gender, children and refugee law--travel to refugee camps, detention centers and other areas where there are thousands of displaced families, to conduct field research, technical training, and convene meetings. In addition, the Women's Commission sends fact-finding delegations of professional women to meet with refugee women and children around the world and learn first-hand of their needs and conditions. Recent delegations have traveled to Darfur and southern Sudan, Colombia, Liberia and Thailand
You may learn more about us by reading our Fact
Sheet
, and view our Staff and Board List.