Why Refugees Need Reproductive Health Services

Abstract

Over the years humanitarian crises have grown more complex and intervention has become more difficult. The number of people who are displaced within their own country has increased and providing for their care and protection is risky and difficult. The articles in this special section of International Family Planning Perspectives review several aspects of the struggle to meet the needs of refugees internally displaced persons and migrants. The history of an international initiative to guide delivery of comprehensive reproductive health services to refugees and the internally displaced is described in detail in the special report by Laurel Schreck. Francoise Girard and Wilhelmina Waldman examine the framework for the reproductive rights of refugees and the internally displaced along with the policies of some agencies and organizations involved in humanitarian assistance. Review of the literature is done by Therese McGinn to determine how refugee womens reproductive health status is both similar to and different from that of settled populations. Sandra Krause Rachel Jones and Susan Purdin describe efforts that have been made among war-affected populations in key program areas. Finally Virginia Morrison examines the specific contraceptive needs of Cambodian refugees who lived in a camp in Thailand. Several critical issues which need to be addressed are specified.