2020 Syria Regional Appeal - Lebanon - Protection

PRS and PRL continue to face a number of protection issues, exacerbated by the impact of the protracted crisis in Syria and a worsening socio-economic situation in Lebanon, leading to increased competition for scarce resources and increased tensions in Palestine refugee camps. In response, UNRWA will continue to identify and monitor protection incidents affecting Palestine refugees and provide assistance by facilitating access to protection services for both PRS and PRL of the host community. According to the analysis conducted by UNRWA Lebanon field office (LFO) Protection Unit in 2018, PRS are disproportionately affected by protection concerns: despite constituting only between 10 and 12 per cent of the total Palestinian refugee population in Lebanon, PRS represent 60 per cent of general protection cases, 29 per cent of child protection cases, 38 per cent of GBV cases and 64 per cent of the legal aid cases recorded by UNRWA. The precarious legal status of PRS in Lebanon, coupled with limited self-support opportunities and depletion of resources, increase vulnerabilities particularly for women and children, who are disproportionately affected by GBV. This has grave consequences for their physical, emotional and social well-being. Children are further exposed to a number of child protection risks, including exploitation, violence and abuse. In a context where PRS and PRL communities continue to face substantial obstacles to the full enjoyment of their human rights and are exposed to multiple protection risks, the delivery of protection prevention and response services remains a priority for UNRWA. These include critical community-based protection interventions (with a focus on GBV, child protection and MHPSS) and legal aid services. To this end, UNRWA is building the capacity of established community support structures, such as women and girls? committees, boys? and men?s groups, as well as structures such as Parent Teacher Associations (PTA), to engage the community on relevant issues such as addressing root causes of GBV, gender equality, disability inclusion, prevention of violence against children including anti-bullying campaigns and positive parenting, as well as safe identification and referrals of protection cases. Community groups, including both PRS and PRL, are actively leading campaigns and awareness raising sessions aimed at increasing community members? knowledge of their rights and services in place. UNRWA will continue to work with specialized local and international partners to enhance capacity building and training to community members. Due to funding constraints, in 2019, UNRWA had to adjust its protection structure in Lebanon to a constrained budget, affecting the Agency?s ability to deliver trainings on protection to UNRWA staff and requiring a revision of the training packages in line with the revised priorities. Based on this, in 2019, the unit has been progressively disengaging from referral system coordination and response to individual protection cases, due to limited resources and in line with the role and responsibilities established by Agency-wide reform processes (e.g. RSS reform). In 2020, the UNRWA Protection Unit in Lebanon will put a stronger focus on international protection and protection monitoring along with the mainstreaming and integration of protection in the Agency?s programmes. Protection monitoring and documentation will focus on the collection of individual cases involving alleged abuses of human rights by duty bearers to identify and track trends for advocacy and interventions. In addition, the Protection Unit will conduct focus group discussions and individual interviews with both PRS and PRL in host communities to understand the issues and challenges PRS face in making the choice of whether to remain in Lebanon or return to Syria. UNRWA will also continue to conduct interviews with PRS newly arrived from Syria. The Agency will furthermore continue to engage with the international human rights system in line with the IHRS framework and with the support of UNRWA HQ.