New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority

The Refugee Status Appeals Authority reaffirmed in this decision New Zealand jurisprudence on the internal protection alternative, holding that even were it free to do so, it would not follow the decisions of the House of Lords in Januzi v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2006] 2 AC 426 and AH (Sudan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2007] 3 WLR 832 which facilitate the withholding of recognition of refugee status. The Authority emphasized that such withholding of recognition can only occur in a highly limited class of case where (a) the proposed internal protection alternative is accessible to the individual. This requires that the access be practical, safe and legal; (b) in the proposed site of internal protection there is no risk of being persecuted for a Convention reason; (c) in the proposed site of internal protection there are no new risks of being persecuted or of being exposed to other forms of serious harm or of refoulement; and finally, (d) in the proposed site of internal protection basic norms of civil, political and socio-economic rights will be provided by the State. The Authority has also declined to follow the two recent decisions of the High Court of Australia in SZATV v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (2007) 237 ALR 634 and SZFDV v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (2007) 237 ALR 660. In these two decisions the "protection" element of the refugee definition in Article 1A(2) was interpreted as "diplomatic protection".

In this decision, addressing honour killings in Turkey, the Authority also held that the political opinion ground was the most appropriate Convention ground on which the claim succeeded. The Authority has made important observations about gender in the context of the political opinion ground and the need for that ground to receive a gender-sensitive interpretation. It concluded that "honour" enforces rigid control by men over women and their sexuality. It is about policing community norms and codes of behaviour, collective decisions and acts of punishment. Ultimately, it is about the distribution and exercise of power in Turkish society. The observance of honour reflects the gendered inequality of power in that society. In the specific context the Authority was satisfied that the claimant's assertion of her right to life and of her right to control her life and her challenge to inequality and the structures of power which support it, was plainly "political" as that term is used in the Refugee Convention.

11 September 2008 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Blood feuds - Country of origin information (COI) - Internal flight alternative (IFA) / Internal relocation alternative (IRA) / Internal protection alternative (IPA) - Kurd - Persecution based on political opinion - Social group persecution - State protection - Well-founded fear of persecution | Countries: New Zealand - Turkey

6 August 2008 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Country of origin information (COI) - Prosecution vs persecution - Social group persecution - State protection | Countries: Australia - Hungary

18 June 2008 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Effective remedy - Manifestly unfounded / Clearly abusive claims - Refugee status determination (RSD) / Asylum procedures - Rule of law / Due process / Procedural fairness - State protection - Statelessness - Statelessness | Countries: Canada - New Zealand - United States of America

21 February 2008 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Country of origin information (COI) - Internal flight alternative (IFA) / Internal relocation alternative (IRA) / Internal protection alternative (IPA) - Muslim - Non-state agents of persecution - Persecution based on political opinion - Religious persecution (including forced conversion) - State protection | Countries: New Zealand - Sri Lanka

25 January 2008 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Changes of circumstances in home country - Manifestly unfounded / Clearly abusive claims - Racial / Ethnic persecution - State protection | Countries: Fiji - New Zealand

14 January 2008 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Manifestly unfounded / Clearly abusive claims - Racial / Ethnic persecution - State protection | Countries: Fiji - New Zealand

30 November 2007 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Country of origin information (COI) - Domestic violence - Female genital mutilation (FGM) - Non-state agents of persecution - Right to employment - Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) - Single heads of household - Social group persecution - State protection | Countries: Mali - New Zealand

26 November 2007 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Country of origin information (COI) - Criminal justice - Freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment - Non-state agents of persecution - Social group persecution - State protection | Countries: Czech Republic - New Zealand

31 October 2007 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Manifestly unfounded / Clearly abusive claims - Racial / Ethnic persecution - Right to education - Right to employment - State protection | Countries: Fiji - New Zealand

15 October 2007 | Judicial Body: New Zealand: Refugee Status Appeals Authority | Document type: Case Law | Topic(s): Equality before the law - Housing, land and property rights (HLP) - Internal flight alternative (IFA) / Internal relocation alternative (IRA) / Internal protection alternative (IPA) - Non-state agents of persecution - Right to education - Right to employment - Right to health - Roma - State protection | Countries: Hungary - New Zealand