Direitos humanos, mulheres e refúgio: o papel da anistia internacional na divulgação e manutenção dos direitos das palestinas e sírias refugiadas no Líbano de 2010 a 2019

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the importance of the contribution of Amnesty International on the dissemination and maintenance of the human rights of Palestinian and Syrian refugee women in Lebanon, from 2010 to 2019. The methodology used was the descriptive qualitative with some quantitative elements, percentages. The motivation for such study is given by the importance of non-governmental organizations in human rights advocacy in scenarios of non-recognition of protection regimes, such as Lebanon’s, in addition to the specific gender violations suffered by Palestinian and Syrian women living as refugees in the country. Amnesty International started as a humanitarian organization focused only on prisoners of conscience, but soon enough it became an independent and relevant actor in the international arena. This allowed it to extend its mandate to a more plural one, including gender and refugee issues. It was found that Amnesty International can be classified as an international organization, which allows greater reach on subjects that would normally be difficult to access outside of their regional contexts, such as the realities of Palestinian and Syrian refugee women in Lebanon. Besides, the organization has operational character, well defined bureaucratic system, and three stages of action: research; advocacy and lobbying; and campaign. However, the hypothesis raised is that its main mechanism of dissemination of gender and refugee rights in Lebanon are its annual and individual reports. It was concluded, therefore, that Amnesty International is indeed a valuable mechanism for public information about Palestinian and Syrian refugee women in Lebanon for its easy access to content and constant date update, but it fails to keep a regular production of reports focused on the subject, since the last report of gender-and-refugee-specific report was from 2016. Moreover, it cannot protect the maintenance of these rights for it has a very broad mandate, and ends up focusing on themes that will attract more public attention. This leads to the failure to achieve its goal of pressure against the Lebanese government and other relevant bodies for accountability.