â[W]omen and young girls face what the UNâs independent expert on human rights in Somalia refers to as âdouble victimizationâ â first the rape or sexual assault itself, then failure of the authorities to provide effective justice or medical and social supportâ â Somalia: Women fearing gender-based harm / violence. UK Home Office. February 2015.âThe report aims to provide information on the security situation in Afghanistan, which is relevant for international protection status determination (PSD; refugee status and subsidiary protection)â â EASO Country of Origin Information Report. Afghanistan Security Situation. European Asylum Support Office. January 2015.
âThis volume presents a comprehensive study of the relevance of experts, as mediators of culture, who are called upon to corroborate, substantiate credibility, and serve as translators in the face of confusing legal standards that require proof of new forms and reasons for persecution around the globeâ â Adjudicating Refugee and Asylum Status. The Role of Witness, Expertise, and Testimony. Benjamin N. Lawrence and Galya Ruffer (Eds). Cambridge University Press. February 2015.
âThe viewpoint that the humanitarian crisis constituted a national security threat⊠became an optical filter that bent normal principles of justice and fairness into a tiny void where a cynical governmental response formed: the women and children, regardless of the particular facts in their particular lives, must be deported for political purposes. Indeed, the Administrationâs decision to deport them was made before any of the women sent to Artesia had been interviewedâ â Ending Artesia. Stephen Manning. Innovation Law Lab. 2015.
âThe victims are typically aged between 13 and 17, sent back home after being detained by immigration authorities for entering the country without authorisationâ â Deported children face deadly new dangers on return to Honduras. UNHCR. 29 January 2015.
âRecent history has witnessed numerous humanitarian crises in which noncitizens have been among those most seriously affected. With more people than at any other point in history residing outside of their country of origin, the presence of new and sustained eruptions of violence and conflict, and the frequency and intensity of disasters predicted to increase, noncitizens will continue to be caught in countries experiencing crisesâ â On the Margins: Noncitizens Caught in Countries Experiencing Violence, Conflict and Disaster. Sanjula Weerasinghe, Abbie Taylor et al. Journal on Migration and Human Security. 2015.
âIn order to address the deficiencies in the Greek asylum system, some of which were highlighted in the M.S.S. judgment, Greece has been implementing a complex reform of its asylum system, based on the Greek Action Plan for Migration Management and Asylum developed by the Greek authorities and supported by a number of actors, including the European Commission (EC), the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)â â Greece as a Country of Asylum. UNHCR Observations on the Current Situation of Asylum in Greece. UNHCR. December 2014.
âInconsistent approaches in determining an asylum seekerâs complicity in smuggling undermine refugee protection for sea-borne asylum seekersâ â Smuggled migrant or migrant smuggler: Erosion of sea-borne asylum seekersâ access to refugee protection in Canada. Chelsea Bin Han. Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) Working Paper Series. February 2015.
âThis research constitutes a significant pooling of knowledge on the law and practice on alternatives to detention in 6 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom). In addition, it includes legal research on the scope of Member Statesâ obligations to implement alternatives to immigration detention under international, European (i.e., Council of Europe) and EU lawâ â Alternatives to Immigration and Asylum Detention in the EU: Time for Implementation. Philippe De Bruycker (ed.). Odysseus Network. January 2015.
âA summary of the current minimum international legal standards on the right to legal aid, from the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, supported by principles and standards from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee, the UN Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems, and other European and UN bodiesâ â European and International Standards on the Right to Legal Aid. Open Society Justice Initiative. December 2014.
âThis complex and multi-faceted human dilemma [âŠ] will only be solved when conditions in childrenâs countries of origin do not force them or their parents to migrate, when increased options exist for children and families to migrate through regular channels, and when policies at the regional, national, and local levels adhere to rights-based principles with the best interests of the child as a core standard and guaranteed access to international protectionâ â Childhood and Migration in Central and North America: Causes, Policies, Practices and Challenges. Lisa Frydman, Karen Musalo, and Pablo Ceriani Cernadas (Eds.). Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, University of California Hastings College of the Law and the Migration and Asylum Program, Center for Justice and Human Rights, National University of LanĂșs, Argentina. February 2015.
âThe Tabit atrocities demonstrate the continuing and urgent need for a professional and independent force that can help protect civilian populations in Darfur from attack. It also underscores the reality that the current UNAMID force has been hamstrung in its performance and in the implementation of its core mandateâ â Mass Rape in Darfur: Sudanese Army Attacks Against Civilians in Tabit. Human Rights Watch. 11 February 2015.
âCaseworkers must not stereotype the behaviour or characteristics of lesbian, gay or bisexual personsâ â Asylum Policy Instruction: Sexual Identity Issues in the Asylum Claim. UK Home Office. 11 February 2015.
âSection 8 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004 requires decision-makers to take into account the claimantâs conduct when applying the benefit of the doubt to unsubstantiated material facts. It is essential to provide the claimant with an opportunity to explain the reasons for such behaviourâ â Asylum Policy Instruction: Assessing Credibility and Refugee Status. UK Home Office. January 2015.
âThis report presents country of origin information (COI) on Zimbabwe up to 27th November 2014 on issues of relevance in refugee status determination for Zimbabwean nationalsâ â Zimbabwe Country Report. Asylum Research Consultancy. January 2015.
ÂŽHuman Rights Watch is not aware of a single instance in which officials prosecuted a perpetrator of an attack against a journalist or media outlet since 2011â â War on the Media: Journalists under Attack in Libya. Human Rights Watch. February 2015.
â[J]ust as allowing migrants to drown in the Mediterranean is unconscionable, and leaving Jordan, Lebanon and Kenya (and to a lesser extent Italy) to absorb the outflows is unfair (as well as unworkable in the long term), so failing to offer training and education to those who could benefit from it is short-sightedâ â Europeâs refugee crisis is an economic opportunity lost. Charlotte Harford. Financial Times. 12 February 2015.
âA lawyer told Human Rights Watch in December that interrogators subjected Shehata, who once led Egypt's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, and his brother to electrocution and other mistreatment to force Shehata to confess to weapons possession and other charges related to violenceâ â Egypt: Investigate Professor's Allegations of Torture. Human Rights Watch. 3 February 2015.
âThe same presiding judge who handed down a life sentence against Ahmed Douma today yesterday handed down 183 death sentences in a separate mass trialâ â Egypt: Hundreds of life sentences handed down in mass trial âfarcical.â Amnesty International. 4 February 2015.
âNumerous conclusions of UNHCR's Executive Committee, of which Australia is a founding member, have attested to the overriding importance of the non-refoulement principle irrespective of the geographic location of the asylum-seeker or refugeeâ â UNHCR Legal Position: Despite court ruling on Sri Lankans detained at sea, Australia bound by international obligations. UNHCR. 4 February 2015.
â[A]ny doubt on the age of an applicant will necessarily persist after a radiological examination, which automatically triggers an in dubio pro reo rule in EU law, according to which the applicant has to be treated as a childâ â Junk Science? Four Arguments Against the Radiological Age Assessment of Unaccompanied Minors Seeking Asylum. Gregor Noll. Lund University, Faculty of Law. January 2015.
â[T]he Upper Tribunal, when considering whether a same sex orientated male who may be at risk of harm from his family could be expected to relocate, held that âIndia is a country of 1.2 billion people and we have not been drawn to any evidence that there is a central registration system in place which would enable the police to check the whereabouts of inhabitants in their own state, let alone in any of the other states or unions within the countryââ â India: Background information, including actors of protection, and internal relocation. UK Home Office. February 2015.
âIn the first half of 2014, 34 percent of children in detention were assessed as having mental health disorders at levels of seriousness that were comparable with children receiving outpatient mental health services in Australia. Less than two percent of children in the Australian population were receiving outpatient mental health services in 2014â â The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. Australian Human Rights Commission. December 2014.