Women in Refugee Law (WiRL)

The Women in Refugee Law (WiRL) network was set up in 2021 by Dr Christel Querton (UWE Bristol) and Dr Moira Dustin (University of Sussex) to bring together asylum seeking and refugee women, senior and early career scholars, practitioners, policymakers and activists working in this field around the globe. The purpose of the network is to re-centre the study of refugee women within refugee law, policy and practice. In particular, the initiative challenges the assumption that legal and policy changes in the last 30 years have displaced the need for continued research and advocacy efforts. It aims to safeguard advances and identify contemporary obstacles to the protection of women in refugee law, policy and practice. 

The network's aims are:

• refocusing attention on the needs and experiences of refugee women
• reviewing the state of protection in domestic jurisdictions and internationally
• identifying any unrecognised setbacks to adequate protection
• exploring new challenges and opportunities for collaborative work
• building an open and inclusive global network to take forward all of the above objectives.

View WiRL values and objectives (PDF)

Refugee Survey Quarterly Special Issue

The contributors are WiRL members who take forward the network’s objectives of recentring the study of refugee women by reviewing the state of protection in domestic jurisdictions and internationally, identifying setbacks to adequate protection for women at risk of persecution, and proposing inclusive ways forward.

Reflecting WiRL’s global and interdisciplinary approach, the Special Issue seeks to go beyond the usual academic journal structure by including what we call “field reflections” by activists and advocates with applied experience of improving the protection of refugee women.

Refugee Survey Quarterly Special Issue

Contact

If you have any queries about WiRL, please contact either Dr Christel Querton (Christel.Querton@uwe.ac.uk) or Dr Moira Dustin (M.Dustin@sussex.ac.uk).