Marginal women, marginal rights: impediments to gender-based persecution claims by asylum-seeking women in Australia

Women’s experiences of violence often remain invisible or discounted in asylum law and practice. Gender is absent as an overt ground for protection under the Refugee Convention and readings of the Convention have commonly excluded it. Although Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has acknowledged women’s special protection needs with instruments such as the Guidelines on Gender Issues for Decision Makers (DIAC 1996, 2010), the article investigates whether these are translating into practice. It examines ways in which women’s claims for asylum because of gender-based persecution (GBP) may be impeded in Australia. Drawing on feedback from major stakeholder groups, including asylum advocates, asylum seeking women, and DIAC, we suggest that at the time of our fieldwork (2005/2006) appropriate consideration of claims of GBP was generally still not evident within DIAC. We identify barriers to both the emergence and consideration of claims and suggest ways DIAC might improve gender sensitivity in the processing of asylum claims. Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 24, No. 2 The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com