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BELIEVE IT OR NOT

International asylum conference on credibility assessment in SOGIESC cases

📅 20 September 2024
📌 Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam, and online

Believe it or not

This conference will bring together practitioners, activists, LGBTQI+ people who have sought asylum, policy makers, academics, and NGOs. We hope to find solutions to the issues which are commonly experienced within the credibility assessment of SOGIESC asylum claims and to update and improve UNHCR 2012 Guidelines on International Protection No. 9: Claims to Refugee Status Based on Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity.

According to the Summary Conclusions of UNHCR’s 2021 Global Roundtable on LGBTQI+ Asylum Seekers there is a need to urgently revise the UNHCR 2012 Guidelines No. 9. However, to date the Guidelines remain unchanged. Credibility assessment of LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers is still often based on stereotypical assumptions and expectations of universal characteristics or life experiences among all LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers, such as ‘emotional journeys’, shame, and other negative feelings about themselves.

Registration

It is no longer possible to register for the conference.

 

Program

Speakers

Keynote speaker
  • Nuno Ferreira, Professor of Law, University of Sussex
Speakers
  • Story of a refugee from Uganda
  • Adriana Rojas, UNHCR

 

 

 

Paper sessions

  • Queer (in)visibilities
  • Proving SOGIESC
  • Challenging stereotypes I
  • Challenging stereotypes II
  • Means of proof
  • Towards a more inclusive assessment

Workshops

  • Credibility assessment in children’s SOGIESC asylum claims
  • Reflections on Canada’s Guideline on SOGIESC refugees: lessons learned from LGBTQI-led community based research and advocacy
  • Worlds apart: A stumbling credibility assessment in a trans asylum claim
  • Self-organising and knowledge exchange among LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers and rights’ advocates

Full program

Want to learn more about the program? Download the full program below.

 

Conference program

About the organizers

This conference is organized by the Striking Sirens Coalition, a group of practitioners and academics in the field of SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics) asylum law in Europe, from Greece (Sophia Zisakou, University of Lund), the Netherlands (Sabine Jansen, COC Netherlands), Norway (Andrea Vige Grønningsӕter, University of Oslo), Sweden (Aino Gröndahl, RFSL) and the United Kingdom (Claire Fletcher, Solent University, Rainbow Migration).