Next week sees the launch of 'Misjudging Rape', a dossier of how adjudicators (now known as immigration judges) flout international law and even their own guidelines when they consider the asylum claims of women and girls seeking safety and protection from rape.
The launch takes place on Tuesday 5 Dec 2006 6.30pm, and is hosted by Ian Macdonald QC, at Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2 (Nearest tube: Holborn)
Speakers include: Cristel Amiss, Black Women’s Rape Action Project; Sian Evans, Women Against Rape; Anver Jeevanjee, Member Asylum & Immigration Appeals Tribunal 1983-2004; Jovanka Savic, Sutovic Hartigan Solicitors; Louise Hooper, barrister, Garden Court Chambers; Sarah Kajumba, All African Women’s Group
In the UK, where at least 50% of women seeking asylum are victims of sexual violence, rape survivors face many obstacles in demonstrating how their claims for asylum relate to the Refugee Convention and why they should therefore be granted protection. The Asylum Gender Guidelines, published in 2000 by Immigration Appellate Authority (now the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal) are one of few official tools laying out how women’s claims should be treated at appeals. The Guidelines aim to: ”ensure that the procedures used do not prejudice women asylum seekers or make it more difficult for them to present their asylum claims.
Yet when Black Women’s Rape Action Project (BWRAP) and Women Against Rape (WAR) analysed over 60 adjudicators’ rulings they found that:
· Few Adjudicators even referred to the Guidelines.
· Women raped by soldiers were told the rape they suffered was “simple dreadful lust” and therefore not persecution.
· Rape survivors told that it would be safe for them to return to their country of origin and live thousands of miles away from their homes.
· Women who did not report rape immediately accused of reporting in order to “enhance a fabricated asylum claim.”
· The testimony of “a pretty young woman” dismissed as not credible because she did not report rape in her country of origin.
· A woman detained under the fast track system told that three days was “ample time” to find a lawyer and her case dismissed because it was “riddled with discrepancies.”
· In identikit rulings, two women were told by the same judge: “Rape is a horrific crime which should not be utilised lightly merely to bolster an asylum claim.”
· Where the Guidelines were adherred to women reported feeling that they had a fairer hearing.
Hundreds of women come to BWRAP and WAR having been turned down, not because they don’t have compelling evidence of rape and other torture but because hostility, discrimination, disbelief, bullying and indifference meant they never had the chance to speak about what they suffered OR because legal aid cuts mean they were left with poor (or even no) legal representation and no expert or corroborative evidence was gathered to support their claim. This is especially true for cases assessed under the fast-track.
Ensuring justice for women at Tribunal hearings is essential because, as appeal rights have been eroded, it is usually the last chance for a woman to describe why she was forced to flee. If adjudicators get their decisions wrong, vulnerable and traumatised women, children and men are sent back to face further rape and even death. Demanding adherence to the Guidelines and legal accountability from adjudicators, who frequently make arbitrary and unjust decisions, is therefore crucial to rape survivors getting protection and justice.
For more information: Black Women's Rape Action Project (bwrap@dircon.co.uk); Women Against Rape (war@womenagainstrape.net, Tel: 0207 482 2496 or 07958 152171; Fax: 0207 209 4751) http://www.womenagainstrape.net/