Women and Girls Fleeing Conflict: Gender and the Interpretation and Application of the 1951 Refugee Convention

This paper aims to bring some preliminary focus to a sub‐set of female refugee claimants, by asking three interrelated questions. 1) can violence directed against women and girls during conflict ever be described as indiscriminate (and therefore not persecutory for the purposes of the Refugee Convention)? 2) on what legal basis, if any, could a woman or girl fleeing conflict meet the definition of ‘refugee’? 3) what problems do women and girls fleeing conflict face when making refugee claims, and are these problems different from those faced by female claimants fleeing peacetime ill‐ treatment?