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Introduction and Overview. What is this Document? How This Document Can be Used to Advance A Gender-Sensitive Asylum Policy in Europe |
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II European governments should develop guidelines pertaining to women asylum seekers and refugees. These guidelines should evidence sound standards and highlight good practices. The process of developing such guidelines should involve refugee women and relevant intergovernmental and non governmental organisations. III The European Union and European governments should incorporate into their policies, positions and guidelines, the points included in the Thematic Recommendations below concerning: 1) reception, 2) information about and monitoring of the asylum determination process, 3) asylum procedures, 4) the interpretation and application of the refugee definition in the 1951 Geneva Convention and 5) durable solutions. IV European governments should expand the training of interviewers, hearing officers, decision-makers, interpreters, representatives of asylum seekers, and others involved with women asylum seekers and refugees in order to ensure the proper implementation of policies and guidelines that incorporate the points included in the Thematic Recommendations below. V European governments should maintain statistical data pertaining to asylum claims by gender, including with respect to applications, recognitions, rejections, resettlement, return and detention. Such statistical information should also be maintained relative to complementary forms of protection. VI UNHCR should further its efforts to promote respect for refugee and human rights principles and standards for women asylum seekers and refugees by States. VII Non governmental organisations and others should undertake advocacy/lobbying work to ensure the adoption by the European Union and by European governments of policies, positions and guidelines, relating to women asylum seekers and refugees, which incorporate the points in the Thematic Recommendations below. Such advocacy/lobbying work may include the points mentioned in Annex 1.
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Reception Steps should be taken to ensure the physical safety and privacy of women asylum seekers in reception and detention centres, including providing accommodation separate from male asylum seekers, except where these are their relatives. Women
in reception and detention centres, as well as those accommodated
in other manners during the asylum procedure, should receive access
to legal and other services without discrimination as to their gender.
They should also have access to specific services which respond
to their special health needs, in particular, gynaecological and
obstetrical services. Independent
monitoring of the situation of women asylum seekers by non-governmental
organisations should be undertaken and where already existing, expanded. Adequate time must be afforded to a woman seeking asylum after her arrival to ensure that she is willing and able to tell her story. Interview/Hearing A woman asylum seeker should be informed, before she arrives for the interview or hearing, that she may choose to use a female interpreter and to be interviewed by a female interviewer or heard before a female decision-maker. Sufficiently trained female interviewers, hearing officers, decision-makers and interpreters must be routinely available and provided upon request. An environment appropriate to eliciting information from the asylum seeker in a non-confrontational and sensitive way should be created, including sufficient time for the woman to recount her story. Women asylum seekers must be assured that their experiences will remain confidential and will not be disclosed or used for any purpose other than a determination of their own asylum claim. Questioning should be carried out utilising culturally sensitive methods such as attentive listening, not making judgmental comments and not talking at the same time as the woman. Interviewers, hearing officers and decision-makers should be sensitive to the fact that what they may routinely consider to be the 'classic' refugee claim, involving 'traditional' overt political activity, may not be applicable to all claims, especially those involving women. Country
of origin information Country
of origin information should include information on the role, status
and treatment of women. 4
Interpretation and Application of the Refugee Definition in the
1951 Geneva Convention In addition to general claims of persecution, women refugees may have been subjected to serious violations of their human rights which are more specific to or more commonly affect women. These include, but are not limited to rape and other forms of sexual violence and restrictions or discriminatory treatment, enforced by legal norms or imposed by social or religious norms, which threaten or harm women's physical or psychological integrity. Reasons
for Persecution In determining the reason(s) for the persecution, an assessment must be made of the factual context, which includes experiences related to her gender. Where the form of persecution is gender-specific, this should not obscure the reason why the persecutory act occurred. Oftentimes, the asylum claim will fall under one or more of the reasons for persecution other than the particular social group category. Other times, the claim will fall under the particular social group category and one or more of the other four reasons for persecution. Sometimes, the particular social group category may be the only possible ground for the claim. Absence
of State protection The State is responsible for the conduct of State agents, including acts of sexual violence. Where
non-State agents, including private individuals or family members,
commit acts of persecution and the State does not exhibit due diligence,
or despite its due diligence is unable, to prevent, control, remedy
or discipline such acts, then there is no effective State protection. 5
Durable Solutions Refugee women should have access to health care. Additionally, psychological and physical care should be provided to victims of trauma. Information should be made available to refugee women about education, language skills and job training programmes as well as job opportunities and general orientation programmes in the country. Programmes should be implemented which will assist refugee women in adapting to their new communities. Consideration should be given to the fact that encouraging the development of skills and qualifications of women asylum seekers during the asylum process, can contribute to their independence during the integration process, in the case of recognised refugees, or their re-establishment in their country of origin in the case of rejected women asylum seekers. Voluntary
return
Advocacy/lobbying
approaches and techniques, which may be utilised by non governmental
organisations and others, include the following: Objectives Campaign for the public disclosure of guidelines or instructions for government workers or decision-makers, where these exist. Promote the establishment in each European State, as well as at the European level, of a co-ordinating body for women refugees' issues. Promote
the establishment of independent monitoring bodies in European States
which would evaluate the situation of women asylum seekers and refugees. Specific
target areas at the European level Explore
European Union budget lines that cover the problems of women asylum
seekers and refugees. Methods The utilisation of human rights law and mechanisms may be helpful in convincing governments to implement changes in their asylum procedures.
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