Mean Streets: Identifying and Responding to Urban Refugees' Risks of Gender-Based Violence

An increasing majority of refugees live in cities and they face gender-based violence risks as a result of unmet needs and intersecting oppressions based on gender, race, sexual orientation, and disability among others. This new reality necessitates a monumental shift in humanitarian response.A deeper understanding of the nuances and complexities of urban risks is essential to addressing violence and bridging the protection gaps affecting marginalized groups who have been traditionally overlooked in humanitarian response. Protecting refugees with heightened risks – women, adolescent girls, LGBTI individuals, persons with disabilities, sex workers and male survivors of sexual violence – requires innovative, tailored programming and outreach.