Gender Based Violence in Bhutanese Refugee Camps in Nepal: An Empirical Study from the Sanischar Refugee Camp

Abstract

Gender based Violence (GBV) has been the experience of women worldwide and is a universal reality that has existed in all societies and human settlements regardless of class, income, culture, or educational attainment. It is today recognized as a major issue on the international human rights agenda and has been defined as violence that is directed against a person on the basis of gender and sex. Globally, the refugees experience the full spectrum of gender - based violence throughout their refugee life. Hundreds and thousands of Southern Bhutanese of Nepali origin or the Lhotshampas were forced to flee Bhutan at the beginning of the 1990s, as a result of the ethnic cleansing campaign of the monarchical government of Bhutan. Over 108, 000 refugees had initially settled in the seven refugee camps spread over the districts of Jhapa and Morang in the southeastern part of Nepal. Women were a part of the refugee population who sought protection in Nepal and so refugee women who are living in the makeshift camps in Nepal for more than three decades confront not only the hardship of refugee life in the camps but also face the injustice of gender based violence, as they have reported rape, sexual assault, polygamy, trafficking and domestic violence. Hence, the paper looks into the causes, types and impacts of gender based violence in the Sanischare Bhutanese refugee camps of Nepal.