Trapped by Inequality: Bhutanese refugee women in Nepal

Bhutanese refugee women who are living as refugees in Nepal, confront not only the hardship of life in refugee camps, but also the injustice of gender-based violence and and a systematic discrimination in access to aid.This 77-page report examines the uneven response of UNHCR and the government of Nepal to rape, domestic violence, sexual and physical assault, and trafficking of girls and women from refugee camps. The Human Rights Watch report shows how Nepal’s laws constrain the prosecution of gender-based violence. Specific domestic violence legislation does not exist in Nepal. This report is based on interviews conducted with 112 refugees in the camps of Khudanabari, Beldangi I, Beldangi II, Timai, Goldhap, and Sanischare in the Jhapa and Morang districts of southeastern Nepal, in 2003.