Women and Asylum

The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK (ICAR) recently compiled a briefing paper on "Women Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK" (July 2007) to complement its navigation guide on the same topic. Both resources highlight the fact that women experience different forms of persecution than men, and as a result their claims for asylum should be assessed within a gender-sensitive framework.

According to a recent briefing paper by the Refugee Women’s Resource Project, it is often more difficult for female asylum-seekers to substantiate their "asylum and human rights claims due to a lack of research documenting women’s experiences of human rights violations in their countries of origin." The latest issue of Women's Asylum News recommends the HJT database and its "country of origin information relating to women" as a resource for researching gender persecution. This is available by subscription through the Electronic Immigration Network.

Other databases that can be searched for gender-related country of origin information include Refworld and ecoi.net.

Posted in Publications and Web Sites/Tools.