This paper aims to discuss the gendered dimension of refugee experiences, with an emphasis on the specific condition of women who become refugees as a result of policies, practices, and social structures that normalize or propagate gender-based violence around the world. The study begins with the observation that, despite international legal advances, the protection granted to women in refugee situations still neglects essential aspects of systemic gender violence. Based on an intersectional and feminist perspective, the article will analyze how this violence not only permeates the contexts of origin and transit of these women but also manifests in the fragility of institutional responses offered by protection mechanisms such as UNHCR. The methodology employed is qualitative, using document and bibliographic analysis, focusing on authors such as Schwinn and Costa (2016), who highlight how gender violence is structural in the production of forced displacements and how it is treated marginally in international protocols. The paper also addresses the obstacles faced by refugee women in their search for recognition and asylum, questioning the absence of a gender-sensitive approach in both the 1951 Refugee Convention and its practical applications. In doing so, the article aims to contribute to the debate on the need to reinterpret protection norms in light of gender inequalities, reinforcing the urgency of public and legal policies that recognize violence against women as a legitimate and autonomous ground for persecution and asylum.
Maria Gabriela Campos Moreira (Thu,) studied this question.