Women Refugees

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong2% picked this

   Both documents are likely to exert a strong influence on improving the status of women in countries that are

   Too Strong: likely strong improvement Unsupported: Convention There is some language in the final paragraph that the UNHCR made a pronouncement that is "likely to exert a strong influence" on the international community. But that referred to a pronouncement made in 1985 by the UNHCR Executive Committee, and it doesn't specifically say it will "improve the status of women in UN member states". We could possibly stretch this answer to apply to the Handbook, but we don't have anything in the 2nd paragraph about the Convention to suggest that the author thinks it's likely to exert a strong influence on improving the status of women.

   2%
2. B

   Out of Scope: explicitly2% picked this

   Both documents explicitly support granting refugee status to women fleeing

   Both documents include a generic category called "social group" that can be used to grant refugee status to women fleeing gender-based persecution, but neither of them have an explicit category for women.

   2%
3. C

   Too Strong: recommended for women17% picked this

   Both documents recommend using the social-group category to classify women refugees seeking

   The second paragraph, which is our only support text for the Convention never even mentions the word "women". The idea is that the "social-group" category can be used for women seeking asylum, when they don't fall into any other defined category. But it's too much to say that the documents themselves recommend using social-group to classify women refugees. Some women will qualify for refugee status because of race, religion, nationality, or political opinion. And the inclusion of social-group is intended to cover groups "such as women facing gender-based persecution, who are otherwise not covered".

   17%
4. D

   Correct71% picked this

   Both documents suggest that the social-group category can be applied to a wide

   Why this is right

   The Convention included the term 'social group' to provide a "safety net" for anyone who fails to fall neatly into an enumerated category. They left the precise boundaries of the category undefined to make sure the term would "retain the flexibility necessary to address unanticipated situations. Both of those ideas suggest that this category could be applied to a wide variety of asylum-seekers. And the first sentence of the 3rd paragraph says that the Handbook also supports "a broad interpretation of social group".

   Skill tested: Locate Detail · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   71%
5. E

   Contradicted8% picked this

   Both documents describe a social group as persons who share a similar background and hold a

   The definition of "social group" in the Convention is left intentionally vague, so that it can be a catch-all for anyone that deserves asylum but doesn't fall into a predefined category. This answer sounds somewhat like language we get to describe the Handbook's definition of social group, but that one is "share a common background or habits or social status. This is saying that social group means, "people who share a similar background and hold a similar status in society"

   8%