Adjudication of asylum claims (refugee status determination / asylum procedures)

The applicants have shown that they have a clear right to the relief they ultimately seek in the main application, a well-grounded apprehension of harm and no other satisfactory remedy. The respondents seek to have the Immigration Act trump the Refugees Act. This is contrary to the injunction in the Ruta case that the two statutes can and should be read in harmony. The applicants are thus entitled to the interim relief they seek, i.e. that they be issued with section 22 permits.

2 September 2019 | Judicial Body: South Africa: High Court | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Refugees sur place - Rejected asylum-seekers | Countries: Burundi - South Africa

September 2019 | Publisher: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) | Document type: Court Interventions / Amicus Curiae

31 July 2019 | Publisher: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) | Document type: Court Interventions / Amicus Curiae

The Committee makes the following recommendations to the State party: (a) Concerning the author of the communication and her daughters: (i) Reopen their asylum case, taking into account the Committee’s views; (ii) Refrain from forcibly returning them to Jordan, where they would be exposed to a real, personal and foreseeable risk of severe forms of gender-based violence. (b) General: (i) Take all measures necessary to ensure that victims of gender-based forms of persecution who are in need of protection, regardless of their status or residence, are not returned under any circumstance to any country in which their life would be at risk or where they might be subjected to gender-based violence or to torture or ill-treatment; (ii) Ensure that the threshold for accepting asylum applications is measured not against the probability but against the reasonable likelihood that the claimant has a well-founded fear of persecution or that she would be exposed to persecution upon her return; (iii) Ensure that women asylum seekers have timely information on the importance of the first interview and what constitutes relevant information in that context; (iv) Ensure that, whenever necessary, examiners use all the means at their disposal to produce and/or verify the necessary evidence in support of the application, including by seeking and gathering information from reliable governmental and non-governmental sources on human rights in the country of origin, in particular relating to the situation of women and girls, and taking all necessary measures in that regard; (v) Ensure, when interpreting all legally recognized grounds for asylum, the classification of claims for asylum on the basis of gender under the grounds of membership of a particular social group, where necessary, and consider adding sex and/or gender and other status to the list of grounds for refugee status in national asylum legislation;

15 July 2019 | Judicial Body: UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) | Document type: Case Law | Legal Instrument: 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) | Topic(s): Domestic violence - Forced marriage - Gender-based persecution - Women's rights | Countries: Denmark - Jordan - Palestine, State of

11 June 2019 | Publisher: Council of Europe: Committee of Ministers | Document type: Decisions

The primary issue to be determined by the Tribunal is whether the appellant is excluded from the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (“Refugee Convention”) by the operation of Article 1D which applies, in certain circumstances, to persons being protected or assisted by United Nations (“UN”) organs and agencies other than the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”). If so, the appellant will not be entitled to recognition as a refugee under section 129 of the Immigration Act 2009 (“the Act”).

28 May 2019 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Immigration and Protection Tribunal | Document type: Case Law | Legal Instrument: 1951 Refugee Convention | Topic(s): Cessation clauses - Palestinian | Countries: Lebanon - New Zealand - Palestine, State of

17 May 2019 | Publisher: National Legislative Bodies / National Authorities | Document type: National Decrees, Circulars, Regulation, Policy Documents

whether a law is of general application – whether a law is appropriate and adapted to some legitimate object in the country in question

14 May 2019 | Judicial Body: Australia: Federal Court | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Public health - Social group discrimination | Countries: Australia - Bangladesh

8 May 2019 | Publisher: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) | Document type: Thematic Reports

May 2019 | Publisher: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) | Document type: Commentaries