19 November 2024
A Rare Win
In a rare win for the rights of asylum seekers in the first Greek asylum case making its way to Luxembourg, the CJEU has limited abusive uses of the safe third country concept that had condemned applicants to legal limbo. In its ruling on 4 October 2024, the Court left Greece’s designation of Türkiye as a safe third country intact. Nonetheless, the case will still have a significant impact on asylum applicants. This post sets out the practical effects of the judgment on people applying for asylum in Greece and beyond. Continue reading >>
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18 September 2024
Rethinking EU Law Beyond the Liberal Feminist Paradigm
In K,L v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (‘K,L’), the CJEU decided that a belief in the value of gender equality associated with the lifestyle of the westernized woman be regarded as a reason for persecution. While the decision contributes to a gender-sensitive EU asylum law, I argue that the CJEU’s classification of the young women’s belief in the value of gender equality as ‘identificatory’ (as opposed to ‘religious’ or ‘political’) perpetuates a long-standing criticism of the liberal feminist paradigm. Continue reading >>
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05 July 2024
Beyond Protection
Whether and how gender-related violence can constitute a ground to claim and receive asylum has long been a subject of debate in refugee law. While feminist legal scholars have long sought to alleviate the gender-blindness of the original text of the Refugee Convention, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) only started taking some steps in this direction earlier this year. The CJEU determined in K, L, that women or specific groups of women who share a belief in an additional common characteristic — such as a belief in gender equality — may be regarded as members of a ‘particular social group’ (PSG), making them eligible for refugee status. Continue reading >>
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12 June 2024
Two Steps Forward?
On May 25 2024 the Advocate General Nicholas Emiliou delivered his opinion in the Case C-406/22 CV v Ministerstvo vnitra České republiky, Odbor azylové a migrační politiky on several issues regarding the application of the safe country of origin (SCO) concept. The case could have significant impact on SCO policies of several EU Member States and the rights of refugees as it addresses the possibility of designating countries as safe with territorial exceptions as well as a more active approach to judicial review of SCO designations. If adopted by the CJEU, the AG’s suggestions could serve to enhance refugee protection, though the adoption of the Pact on Migration and Asylum might possibly counteract this. Continue reading >>08 March 2024
Hélène Cazes Benatar
Based in Casablanca, Hélène Cazes Benatar not only assisted a great number of refugees fleeing from Europe to North Africa, but also helped with the liberation of internees in Saharan forced labor and internment camps run by the Vichy regime. Her social, political and even clandestine activities were significant and extend far beyond the Jewish community until well after the Second World War. Continue reading >>
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29 February 2024
Humanitarian Externalisation
Why are the reasons given in support of the declared aim of the current asylum policies in the UK, EU and USA of breaking the business model of smugglers expressed in humanitarian terms? It is, no doubt, tempting to simply dismiss this humanitarian rhetoric as hypocrisy, as the compliment that vice pays to virtue. Yet however justified that dismissal may be in particular cases, to turn away too quickly from this phenomenon would be to miss something of political significance in its form and to fail to register the historical entanglement of humanitarianism and border externalisation. Continue reading >>
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20 February 2024
The CJEU’s Feminist Turn?
In Case C-621/21, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held that women in general and women facing domestic violence in their country of origin in particular, qualify as a protected ‘social group’ under EU Directive 2011/95 and thus avail themselves for refugee status or subsidiary protection in the Common European Asylum System. This contribution applies the perspective of feminist approaches to international law to critically analyze what this decision means for women and victims of gender-based violence – in- and outside of the European Union. Continue reading >>
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12 February 2024
Consolidating Group-Based Refugee Protection
Two pending cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) provide an opportunity for the CJEU to consolidate group-based refugee protection. At the heart of the cases is a concern with granting refugee protection to groups of persons based on their inherent characteristics, in this case women and girls from Afghanistan. However, as the joined cases of AH and FN highlight, this is often due to an apprehension amongst asylum decision makers over the grant of protection to large groups of persons based on sex and misconceptions surrounding gender-based violence and discrimination. Continue reading >>
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08 July 2023
The Dangers of Conflation
On May 17th 2023 Advocate General de la Tour handed down the Opinion in case C-402/22. It addresses the meaning of “particularly serious crime” found in Article 14 (4) (b) of the 2011 Qualification Directive, which sets out the grounds for revocation or refusal to grant refugee status under EU law. This provision refers to “refugees delinquents” and introduces security concerns of states as the ground for depriving persons of their refugee status. In practice, it opens the question of how to treat refugees that committed certain crime(s) after they obtained refugee status. In this blog I detail the AG’s answer to that question and raise one overriding concern regarding Article 14 QD. Continue reading >>
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25 June 2023