2003 (Executive Committee—54th Session) (a) Calls upon States, UNHCR and its implementing and operational partners to ensure that appropriate systems to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence, including sexual abuse and exploitation, are in place, ensuring the needs of women and children, as well those of vulnerable persons, are addressed at all times; and recommends that measures to combat sexual abuse and exploitation of refugees and asylum-seekers be guided by the importance of: (i) Ensuring explicit reference in codes of conduct and other relevant policies to the responsibilities of relevant personnel to prevent and respond appropriately to sexual and gender-based violence, including sexual abuse and exploitation; (ii) Ensuring the prompt investigation of allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation; (iii) Ensuring that actions undertaken on behalf of refugees and asylum-seekers, including women, children and vulnerable persons, enhance their meaningful participation in decision-making processes; that they are provided with sufficient information to form their opinions, and channels for communicating their concerns to humanitarian agencies, and are provided with full information about refugee protection and available assistance; (iv) Ensuring that needs assessments, evaluations and reports, identify vulnerabilities to sexual exploitation and abuse and provide a basis for improved programme planning that minimizes risks and opportunities for sexual abuse and exploitation, and that protection and assistance processes, taking into account the quantity and quality of assistance and distribution methods, including supervision, are designed and implemented in a manner that reduces the risk of sexual abuse and exploitation; (v) Ensuring that camp governance is conducted in an equitable manner that empowers women, children and vulnerable groups and that the physical layout of camps is designed in such a way as to make such individuals less vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation; (vi) Ensuring that easily accessible and confidential complaint and redress mechanisms are in place for victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, and that they appropriately apply sanctions to perpetrators and ensure that such mechanisms respect due process rights of the accused, and safeguard the security and rights of the victim or witnesses; (vii) Ensuring the existence of adequate remedial measures in order to appropriately care for victims of sexual abuse and exploitation; (viii) Conducting training and capacity building on the prevention and response to sexual abuse and exploitation; (b) Calls upon UNHCR to continue to pursue its ongoing activities taken in the area of sexual abuse and exploitation with particular attention to: (i) Ensuring full implementation of respective policies, codes of conduct, the guidelines on sexual and gender-based violence in refugee, returnee and internally displaced situations, as well as the UNHCR guidelines on gender-related persecution; (ii) Implementing the relevant recommendations from the evaluations of UNHCR's activities in the area of refugee women, refugee children and community services; (iii) Ensuring adequate levels of monitoring and supervision of programmes for prevention and protection from sexual abuse and exploitation, including through physical presence, and to support staff at field level to implement concrete programmes of action; (iv) Developing mechanisms to ensure accountability, including at senior levels, in the implementation of all protection and assistance activities to prevent sexual and gender-based violence; (v) Promoting gender balance in staff at all levels, both at headquarters and in the field, as well as expert and specialist competence, while having regard to merit selection principles; (c) Urges all States, consistent with applicable international refugee, human rights and humanitarian law: (i) to protect refugees and asylum-seekers, especially children, from all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence; and (ii) to cooperate in eliminating all forms of discrimination, sexual exploitation and violence against female refugees and asylum-seekers, and to promote their active involvement in decisions affecting their lives and communities; 158