The rights of
women seeking
asylum:
a charter
The rights of women seeking asylum:
a charter
The rights of women seeking
asylum: a charter
Women come to the UK to seek protection from a range of human rights abuses
abroad. Whilst some of their experiences, such as being detained for their political
activities, are the same as men’s, some of their experiences are gender specific.
Many have suffered, or are at risk of, gender persecution, including rape or sexual
violence, honour crimes, forced marriage, domestic violence or female genital
mutilation in countries where the state fails to protect them.
In leaving behind everything that is familiar these women show remarkable courage.
They deserve to be treated in a way that recognises their particular needs as women
and how their asylum claims are affected by their gender.
All asylum seekers have the right to be treated consistently,
with fairness, dignity and respect in accordance with the
UK’s obligations under the international refugee and human
rights conventions.
For women, this means:
1 women seeking asylum have the right to have their protection claims
determined by an asylum system in the UK that is informed, in all
aspects of its policy and operations, by a thorough understanding
of the particular forms of persecution and human rights abuses that
women experience because of their gender and of their particular
needs as women;
2 women seeking asylum have the right to an asylum determination
process that recognises and takes into account their experiences of
persecution and human rights abuses;
3 women seeking asylum have the right to accommodation, support and
healthcare appropriate to their particular needs as women;
4 women seeking asylum have the right to be treated with dignity in a
way that is appropriate to their needs as women and that ensures their
safety when in detention or during removal.
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The rights of women seeking asylum:
a charter
Introduction
The principle of the fair and consistent treatment of asylum seekers is enshrined in
a range of international human rights mechanisms. Additionally, as a signatory to
the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) and a member state of the European Union which has a key objective to
ensure equality between women and men (article 2 of the Treaty of the European
Union) and to gender mainstream all policies within its competence (article 3), the UK
must ensure the practical realisation of the principle of equality of men and women.
Under the Human Rights Act the UK has a clear obligation both to respect asylum
seekers’ human rights and not to discriminate between men and women.1
If a woman suffers rape, domestic violence or honour crimes in the UK there are
gender-sensitive practices that have been developed within the criminal justice
system to respond appropriately. If a woman suffers similar violence in her home
country and comes to the UK to seek protection, the immigration system should
respond to a similar standard, learning the lessons from the criminal justice system.
Ensuring fair treatment for women who are claiming asylum means that the
Refugee Convention needs to be interpreted in a gender sensitive way both in how
evidence is collected and interpreted and through the procedures that are in place.
The incorporation of the Asylum Policy Instruction on
gender issues in the asylum
claim by the Home Office in March 2004 was an extremely positive development.
Since then the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has made some further progress but
initiatives have tended to be piecemeal suggesting a failure to recognise gender as
an underlying factor fundamental to creating a fair system. In addition there is, too
often, a disconnection between the policy and the operational parts of the UKBA,
particularly on gender issues. To ensure women’s rights are recognised it is essential
to create a gender-sensitive culture within the UKBA as a whole.
The Gender Equality Duty which came into force in April 2007 requires public
authorities to consider whether their policies and services are experienced by
women and men in different ways and make adjustments for this. The UKBA’s
Diversity Equality Scheme and Action Plan first produced in April 2007 to comply
with the Gender Equality Duty and to be revised each year has been welcomed.
However, to fully comply with the Gender Equality Duty and to ensure that women
asylum seekers’ needs are met, actions, such as those identified below, should be
incorporated when the Diversity Equality Scheme and Action Plan are next revised.
1 The term women is used to mean women and girls in this charter
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The rights of women seeking asylum:
a charter
With its new status as an executive agency and its new way of working with asylum
seekers through the reformed, Case Owner-led, asylum process for new claims,
the UKBA can benefit from an approach that embeds a gender perspective into all
of its work. Having such a shared understanding of these issues across the agency
will ensure a more effective service and a better use of resources.
The signatories to this charter call upon the UKBA to commit to treating
women seeking asylum with fairness, dignity and respect, based on a
fundamental recognition of their human rights and of their particular
experiences of persecution.
The charter sets out a range of actions that the UKBA could take to demonstrate
and give practical effect to this commitment. The explanatory notes provide further
details. The proposed actions are not exhaustive, but cover all aspects of the
end-to-end asylum process and reflect the concerns of the signatories that the
present asylum process fails, systematically and repeatedly, to provide protection
for women.
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The rights of women seeking asylum:
a charter
The UK Border Agency
and the rights of women
seeking asylum
Women seeking asylum have the right to have their
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protection claims determined by an asylum system in
the UK that is informed, in all aspects of its policy and
operations, by a thorough understanding of the particular
forms of persecution and human rights abuses that women
experience because of their gender and of their particular
needs as women
To realise this right, the UKBA should:
a. appoint a women’s champion from its Senior Management Team
b. establish a gender monitoring group to ensure implementation of
relevant policies
c. ensure the role of the Race Monitor, expanded to look at equality
issues and placed within the new independent inspectorate,
includes gender issues
d. undertake a gender impact assessment on all current and proposed
asylum policies and procedures and make any necessary adjustments
to address discriminatory or negative impacts on women
e. include the implementation and monitoring of the Asylum Policy
Instruction on gender issues in the asylum claim (Gender API) in
the Diversity Equality Action Plan (or equivalent)
f. provide appropriate training on a regular basis to ensure that staff
understand the reason for initiatives related to women’s rights and
implement them appropriately
g. promote and demonstrate active commitment to non-discriminatory
practice as expressed in its gender policies both internally and externally
and work within the European Union to promote good practice to ensure
that the EU directives on asylum are interpreted in a gender sensitive way
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The rights of women seeking asylum:
a charter
Women seeking asylum have the right to an asylum
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determination process that recognises and takes into
account their experiences of persecution and human
rights abuses
To realise this right, the UKBA should:
a. revise the gender API to fully meet women’s needs
b. ensure that the full and consistent implementation of the gender API is
monitored and regularly reviewed and that a thorough understanding of
the gender API becomes a core competency for UKBA Case Owners
and a key criterion in their accreditation
c. the detained fast track is incompatible with a gender-sensitive asylum
process but whilst it continues, the screening process must be made
sufficiently robust to exclude from the detained fast track those who
claim to have experienced gender-based harm and, in line with existing
policy, exclude those who are 24 weeks or more pregnant or have
serious health issues
d. ensure that those who may have been trafficked into the UK have full
and appropriate access to the asylum determination system
e. build on the improvement to country information reports in relation to
women and ensure they are used appropriately by Case Owners
Women seeking asylum have the right to accommodation,
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support and healthcare appropriate to their particular
needs as women
To realise this right, the UKBA should:
a. develop and implement minimum standard procedures for UKBA
accommodation and support providers
b. ensure girls and young women (including those where there is an age
dispute) are placed in women only accommodation
c. suspend reporting requirements on women who are pregnant or have
babies or young children
d. provide for the particular needs of women on section 4 (hard case)
support
e. alleviate the gender impact of policies that lead to destitution
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The rights of women seeking asylum:
a charter
Women seeking asylum have the right to be treated
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with dignity in a way that is appropriate to their needs as
women and that ensures their safety when in detention
or during removal.
To realise this right, the UKBA should:
a. prevent women who have suffered gender-based harm from
being detained
b. ensure the dignity and safety of women in immigration removal centres
c. take women out of detention immediately if it is discovered that they
have experienced gender-based harm
d. not detain women who are breastfeeding or at any stage of pregnancy
e. cease to detain asylum seekers who have their children with them
f. establish a pre-removal risk assessment process ensuring that it is
sensitive to the particular needs of women
g. ensure an appropriate gender balance for staff involved in
enforcement activity is achieved and that they are appropriately
trained and monitored
For further information contact
[email address]
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