Gender Equality, Development and Effective Humanitarian Aid: A study of UNHCR’s gender policy from a Human Rights perspective

Sammanfattning: Armed conflict displaces a large number of people every year. Today, over 60 million people are estimated to have been forced from their homes because of circumstances beyond their control. Organizations such as UNHCR work to create sanctuaries for them to have their basic needs satisfied. During the years, the focus has expanded and steered towards providing refugees with developmental training and education, preparing them to build up societies if and when possible to return to their homes. Today, one of the major goals for UNHCR is to educate refugees on gender equality and provide women and girls with better opportunities. The purpose of this study is to examine how UNHCR perceives gender roles, and how this might affect the results of their work towards gender equality in the long run. The following question where therefore posed: How does UNHCR’s approach on how to reach gender equality have the possibility to create a permanent change in accordance with Brooke A. Ackerly’s theory on human rights? With ideology criticism as a method, two official documents from UNHCR were analyzed with a theoretical framework by Ackerly. The findings indicate that UNHCR somewhat have the ability to create a permanent change, even though it was suggested that improvements should be made especially in the area of listening.