Subject: Sexual Orientation/Sexuality

Claerwen O’hara, ‘The gap between immutability and perceptibility: Issues experienced by sexual minority asylum seekers in the context of the “membership of a particular social group” ground’, 2013 Abstract: Despite the persecution of sexual minorities being a widely-recognised ground for claiming asylum, this category of asylum seekers still experience a plethora of problems. This is … Read more

On 11 October 2019, the EU Home Affairs Committee published its report on ‘Brexit: refugee protection and asylum policy’ which highlights the potentially significant implications of Brexit for asylum policy, and for vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers in Europe. The report states: ‘The SOGICA Project—a four-year research project on the social and legal experiences of … Read more

Douglas McDonald, ‘Freedom To Be: Assessing the Claims of LGBTQ Asylum Seekers’, 10 Socio-Legal Review, 2014, 35-52 Abstract This paper assesses contemporary dilemmas in the assessment of asylum claims based upon sexual identity, including international legal challenges to previously-prevailing notions that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (“LGBTQ”) asylum seekers may escape persecution through ‘discretion’; … Read more

In 2019, the SOGICA project, in collaboration with partner organisations, submitted Freedom of Information requests about SOGI asylum to the relevant government departments in Germany, Italy and the UK with varying degrees of success. Germany SOGICA prepared questions for a parliamentary request that was submitted by Ulla Jelpke and others, Die Linke, on 17 May … Read more

Joint amicus, ‘Written submissions on behalf of the AIRE Centre, ECRE, HDT, ILGA- Europe and ICJ interveners pursuant to the Section Registrar’s notification of 7 December 2016’, 2017 Abstract The AIRE Centre, ECRE, HDT, ILGA-EUROPE and the ICJ (hereafter, “the interveners”)The intervener submit that in interpreting the scope and content of the Contracting Parties’ obligations … Read more

UNHCR, ‘Guidelines on International Protection: Membership of a Particular Social Group within the context of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees’, 2002 Abstract UNHCR issues these Guidelines pursuant to its mandate, as contained in the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner … Read more

Duncan Breen, ‘The Road to Safety: Strengthening Protection for LGBTI Refugees in Uganda and Kenya’, Human Rights First, 2012

Sharalyn R. Jordan, ‘Un/convention(al) refugees: Contextualizing the accounts of refugees facing homophobic or transphobic persecution’, Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 26(2), 165-182, 2009 Abstract Propelled by fear of violence and flight from stigma, impelled by desire for connection and belonging, the movements of people whose sexualities or genders defy and offend norms cover a complex … Read more

Louise Sarsfield Collins, ‘Safe Spaces: The Law and Everyday Experiences of LGBTQ Asylum Seekers’, NPPSH Reflections, 1, 66-77, 2017 Abstract Each year a few thousand people arrive in Ireland seeking our protection. The events that lead to asylum applications are likely harrowing. However, for many, the asylum process causes further difficulties, particularly for lesbian, gay, … Read more

David K. Seitz, ‘Limbo Life in Canada’s Waiting Room: Asylum-Seeker as Queer Subject’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 35(3), 438-456, 2017 Abstract This paper puts queer theory’s ‘‘subjectless critique’’ of identity to work in challenging the state’s biopolitical use of essential, authentic identities in asylum law and practice. It not only builds upon, … Read more