Engendering Compensation:
Making Refugee Women Count!
Prepared for the Expert and Advisory Services
Fund International Development Research Centre
by Nahla Abdo
March 2000 - Ottawa
7.
Reconstructing Peace: Engendering the Compensation
Process
Based on the assumption that participatory approaches
are more effective than top-down initiatives, and
that both women and men must be involved in negotiations
for peace building and the resolution of the Palestinian
refugee problem, the following section aims to highlight
women’s perspective, contributions, and the
need for their involvement in negotiating compensation
claims. Two key issues will be addressed here: the
first relates to mechanisms for engendering the process
of negotiating compensation; the second will deal
with specific modalities for a gendered approach to
compensation.
This section of the paper will be based on the contextual
framework presented earlier on the status of Palestinian
refugee women and their gender experiences. It must
be pointed out here that the term ‘refugee’
will be used to denote camp dwellers, registered and
unregistered refugees.
7.1 Engendering the Process
of Refugee Compensation Negotiations:
This discussion argues for the engendering of the
very process of negotiating refugee compensation claims.
Following the recommendations of the Beijing Platform
of Action, and as an essential requirement for the
maintenance of peace and security and ensuring equitable
compensations, the process of negotiation needs to
consider an alternative mechanism for its operation;
one which ensures equal access and full participation
of women in the negotiation process. Women must be
encouraged and supported to join the negotiation process
at all levels. Representation can be drawn from the
women’s movement, NGOs working on peace and
women’s and human rights issues, academics,
refugee camp dwellers and researchers with gender-based
analysis backgrounds.
Encouraging women to participate in the negotiation
process entails specific mechanisms that would give
women important roles and functions to play and ensures
that they are not treated as tokens, but as an integral
resource base in the negotiating process. Women participants
can be entrusted in bringing gender perspectives into
the negotiation table as well as implementing them.
Women participants can play specific roles such as:
information resources; gathering information on the
gender-differentiated roles of refugees; gender consultants
and overall observers. Employing these different mechanisms
are likely to affect existing data, particularly if
gender or sex-disaggregated data is to be employed
in the various areas or compensation; including calculating
individual claims for loss of landed property, education,
labour and other forms of entitlements.
Canada can be used as an important resource on gender
issues. The Status of Women, along with CIDA’s
Gender Equality Division, have developed methodologies
for conducting gender-based analysis in policies and
programs, and for dealing with the differential effects
of policies on women and men.
Guaranteeing a gender equitable process of negotiation,
as suggested above, can facilitate subsequent discussions
and decisions about compensation by at least minimizing
the historical and current gender gap and inferior
position Palestinian women in general and refugees
in particular have been subjugated to as a result
of their status as refugees and displaced people.
It can also lead to a more inclusive system of refugee
compensation as will be demonstrated further in the
following sub-section.
Women participants in the compensation negotiation
process should be encouraged to play specific roles
such as: information resources; gathering information
on the gender differentiated roles of refugees; gender
consultants and overall observers.
Employing these different mechanisms are likely to
affect existing data, particularly if gender or sex-disaggregated
data is to be employed in the various areas or compensation;
including calculating individual claims for loss of
landed property, education, labour and other forms
of entitlements.
7.2 Approaching Palestinian
Women’s Compensation: Gender Reconstruction
of Compensation Modalities
The following discussion provides a re-consideration
of compensation approaches from a gender perspective.
To facilitate this discussion we shall present three
areas of compensation and reconstruct them by building
on the ‘Modalities’ provided at the PRRN/IDRC
Workshop on Compensation in July 14-15, 1999 held
in Ottawa (refer to Annex I).
To begin with, it must be observed here that all
‘modalities’ presented at the PRRN/IDRC
Workshop focused on one form of compensation: compensation
for material loss of private property, most notably
land. All scenarios for compensation (e.g., claimants,
formula, mechanism and process) were built around
material considerations only. Yet, as discussed in
this paper, Palestinian women’s refugee experiences
include the ‘feminization of poverty’,
the loss of educational and labour opportunities.
Such experiences cannot be approached or measured
in quantitative manner alone. Special approaches to
these experiences will be considered here.
For a more inclusive approach to compensation, following
Abu-Sitta’s categorization of areas of compensation,
a formula based on three different categories of entitlements
will be considered. These are the following:
- Compensation for individual material loss, which
includes, loss of labour and educational opportunities;
and,
- Compensation for individual moral loss, comprising
mental suffering from dispersion, the division of
families and the consequent impoverishment of women,
torture, ill-treatment, imprisonment and detention
of males and females.
7.2.1 Engendering Compensation
for Individual Loss of Property
Of the two categories of claimants presented in the
Report on the PRRN/IDRC, the one which refers to ‘claims
made by individual 1948 property owners (and their
heirs), is preferable to that based on ‘claims
made by extended family (hamula) or village’.
The first choice, i.e., individual-based claims, has
the potential of minimizing the gender gap and can
be more advantageous to women. As has already been
discussed, the village/Hamula system of property and
inheritance has traditionally excluded women and disadvantaged
them and their female heirs. Neither the traditional
Hamula system nor the new one encouraged by the PA
have the potential to address gender inequalities.
Having said that, however, the individual-based system
must be modified to accommodate gender needs.
It is most likely that almost all registration papers
will appear in the names of males, single or heads
of individual (nuclear) families, and hence, Palestinian
women and girls can be expected to be excluded from
this category of compensation. To engender the term
‘individual claim’, monetary compensation
considered can be divided proportionately according
to the gender/sex composition of the claimant’s
own family. Gender-disaggregated data should be used
to determine the gender composition of 1948 peasant
families and a similar method can be used to determine
gender composition of peasants’ heirs. This
approach must be based on a gender-based analysis
and the ability to re-define the concept of ‘ownership’
from a male concept to a gendered one. A similar approach
can be employed to all monetary compensation considered,
including items classified as non-material but which
could be calculated in monetary terms.
A formula of direct payment to claimants is preferred
over that of indirect payment, whether the latter
is made through the state, the Hamula, or any other
third party. To minimize gender inequality among Palestinian
refugees, a claims-based system, while not the solution,
might be preferred over state or hamula systems, if
it is reassessed to ensure the inclusion of women.
This system can minimize gender inequalities among
claimants. For loss of landed and other forms of movable
and immovable property, cash payment is a preferred
mechanism, rather than payments in kind or in services.
This mechanism is particularly important for single
women, single-mother families or families dependent
on female members for their survival. However, a claims
based system can provide a partial solution to the
gender inequalities among claimants only. It does
not address the class inequalities of pre-1948 Palestinian
peasants, and in fact can lead to further differentiation
between Palestinian women. A more reasonable and just
formula of just compensation would be to compensate
all 1948 Palestinian refugees and their descendents,
through a flat per-capita rate payable to individuals.
This formula addresses both the gender and class inequalities
of Palestinian refugees. Most importantly, it recognizes
the destitution and impoverishment of the falleheen,
which was largely due to the political context of
the time. With sex-disaggregated data on Palestinian
refugees of 1948, this formula can prove to be less
complicated than all others suggested.
The process of payment for loss of landed or other
forms of property is especially important for gender
equality. As demonstrated in the first section of
this paper, the state, has traditionally been a major
factor contributing to the inferior status of women
and therefore cannot be trusted to distribute money
in a gender equitable system. A third party, such
as a UN commission, an international commission or
any other international NGO committee, should be gender
oriented and gender based. This can be accomplished
by the inclusion of women as gender analysts, gender
resource people, and most importantly as gender observers
to guarantee a gender-equitable process. Women involved
can be Palestinian and international women drawn from
the women’s movement, NGOs working on peace
and women’s and human rights issues, academics,
refugee camp dwellers and researchers with gender-based
analysis backgrounds. The presence of such a team
can minimize gender inequalities in past and present
experiences of refugee women, whether these experiences
were in the productive or reproductive spheres.
The integration of gender oriented members in the
process of dispensation of compensation ensures that
alternative approaches of qualitative and quantitative
data can, for example, be collected on differential
experiences of loss of labour and educational opportunities
for women, allowing for the use of gender-disaggregated
data, re-definition of the terms productive and reproductive
labour, the inclusion of reproductive labour (domestic
and other informal forms of labour), and the issue
of gender-based labour exploitation.
Engendering Compensation for individual material
loss, including loss of labour and educational opportunities
- A formula of direct payment to claimants is better
able to address gender issues.
- A more reasonable and just formula of just compensation
would be to compensate all 1948 Palestinian refugees
and their descendants, through a flat per-capita rate
payable to individuals. This formula addresses both
the gender and class inequalities of Palestinian refugees.
- For loss of landed and other forms of movable and
immovable property, cash payment is a preferred mechanism,
rather than payments in kind or in services. This
mechanism is particularly important for single women,
single-mother families or families dependent on female
members for their survival.
- The integration of third party members having a
gender orientation in the process of dispensation
of compensation ensures that alternative approaches
of qualitative and quantitative data be collected,
allowing for the use of gender-disaggregated data,
the re-definition of the terms productive and reproductive
labour, the inclusion of reproductive labour (domestic
and other informal forms of labour), and the issue
of gender-based labour exploitation.
The gender-based modalities are applicable to the
three areas of entitlements mentioned above, in so
far as monetary compensation is concerned. However,
monetary compensation is not the only means of compensation,
particularly in areas where losses involve social,
mental, psychological or other non-material forms.
In fact, in these areas, compensation in other than
monetary means, as will be seen shortly, may prove
to be more beneficial for women victims than money.
For example, in the area of labour and education,
Palestinian women refugees can benefit a great deal
from compensation that involves the development of
existing community programs or the establishment of
new ones. They can also benefit from investment in
services for them and their female children, such
as special educational centers; re-skilling programs;
health services and awareness centers, family clinics...and
so on. The key issue however, is that Palestinian
women, including refugees, NGOs working with women
and other non-official gender-based organizations
must be in charge of the organization of such services.
They must have a say and be in a decision making position
to determine the form and nature of these services
and the type of community development they deem necessary.
7.2.2 Engendering Compensation
for individual moral loss...
As a category that comprises mental suffering from
dispersion, the division of families, imprisonment
and detentions, this category has general relevance
to Palestinian women as defined by the Beijing Platform
of Action, namely, women living in armed conflict,
with specific relevance to camp refugee women. This
category can be partly compensated in monetary forms
in cases, for example, when time spent in prison is
seen as loss in educational and labour opportunities.
If this mechanism is chosen as a form of redress,
claimants must include women. A gendered claims-based
system is to be followed, and the process could be
managed through a third party (not Israel or Palestine).
Palestinian women refugees, as demonstrated earlier
have received the lion’s share of suffering
as a result of the division of families. To minimize
their historic and current suffering, it is advised
that compensation considers the phenomenon of the
‘feminization of poverty’. Moreover, the
imprisonment, detention and ill-treatment of Palestinian
females must also be highlighted and taken into consideration.
As in the first category of entitlement, the key issue
here is guaranteeing that a due process of a gender-based
distribution system is followed. By a gendered-based
process of distribution or dispensation of compensation
we mean the inclusion of women serving as gender experts,
resource people, gender consultants and as overall
observers to foster a gender equitable approach to
the process of compensation.
Yet, monetary compensation is not the only form of
redress here. Other mechanisms such as services and
investment in community development may prove equally
beneficial. Special educational and re-skilling centers
along with the development of existing programs dealing
with mental health problems, like the Gaza Community
Mental Health Program can be encouraged and supported.
Women’s sufferings can also be addressed through
the development of existing women’s centers
or through the establishment of new women’s
organizations dealing with mental and psychological
problems.
Compensation for individual moral loss, comprising
mental suffering from dispersion, the division of
families and the consequent impoverishment of women,
torture, ill-treatment, imprisonment and detention
of males and females
- This category can be partly compensated in monetary
forms in cases, for example, when time spent in
prison is seen as loss in educational and labour
opportunities. If this mechanism is chosen as a
form of redress, claimants must include women. A
gendered claims-based system is to be followed,
and the process must be managed through a third
party (not Israel or Palestine).
- By a gendered-based process of distribution
or dispensation of compensation we mean the inclusion
of women serving as gender experts, resource people,
gender consultants and as overall observers to guarantee
a gender equitable approach to the process of compensation.
- Other (non-monetary) forms of compensation involving
services and investment in community development
may prove equally beneficial. Special educational
and re-skilling centers along with the development
of existing programs dealing with mental health
problems, can be encouraged and supported. Women’s
sufferings can also be addressed through the development
of existing women’s centers or through the
establishment of new women’s organizations
dealing with mental and psychological problems.
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