30 recommendations for improving the lives of people claiming asylum on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI) in the UK
It is now nearly forty years since the first SOGI asylum claims were recognised, and a great deal of progress has been made at a global and European level. There is increased awareness of SOGI persecution as well as examples of good policy and practice that should be publicised and replicated. However, alongside these, the SOGICA project found many areas where improvement is urgently needed, and we address these here. These recommendations largely reflect the views of almost 500 people, those who participated in the SOGICA project’s interviews, focus groups and online surveys.
These recommendations are written in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, among other things, has shown that at times of crisis inequalities between individuals and groups in society widen. This underlines the need for domestic legislation and policy to be based on international refugee and human rights standards, and not dependent on the good will of the government of the day. This will help ensure that in future global crises we really will be ‘all in in together’. Read them here
About the project
SOGICA – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Claims of Asylum: A European human rights challenge’ is a four-year project (2016-2020) funded by the European Research Council (ERC). Based in the School of Law at the University of Sussex, it aims to produce the necessary evidence base for a more just and humane asylum process for individuals seeking refuge in Europe on the basis of their SOGI.
To this end, since 2016, the project has studied the social and legal experiences of SOGI asylum claimants across Europe, by exploring the European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE) frameworks and by focusing on Germany, Italy and the UK as case studies. During this time, SOGICA has carried out more than 150 interviews and focus group discussions with asylum claimants, refugees, decision-makers, practitioners, and experts in the field, and has conducted observations of hearings of SOGI claimants in courts and tribunals. The team has produced a number of publications on different aspects of SOGI asylum (such as credibility, persecution, discretion, domestic and European adjudication of these claims) and made presentations at conferences and seminars across Europe. A database of materials, website of resources and network of more than 1,000 friends and allies beyond academia has been established. The SOGICA project will conclude in 2020 with the publication of a monograph and further peer-reviewed articles, all of which are intended to inform fairer SOGI asylum processes in Europe and greater sensitivity and humanity for SOGI minorities outside the legal process.
Further information
The SOGICA project final conference took place from 7-9 July 2020 and was an opportunity to:
present the SOGICA project findings and recommendations;
give a platform to academics, policy makers, practitioners, activists and refugees addressing sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) asylum in innovative ways;
foster interdisciplinary, cross-sector and international engagement between individuals with an interest in this topic, including those most directly involved as asylum claimants in European countries.
The SOGICA project team invited a wide range of participants, including asylum claimants and refugees, academics, policy makers, practitioners, activists, and anyone with an interest in sexual orientation and gender identity asylum.
The SOGICA final conference took place over three days – 7-9 July 2020 – online and the SOGICA team would like to thank everyone who was involved in making it such a success.
The conference consisted of 26 sessions (including 2 workshops, a performance and a screening) and 3 keynote addresses, more than 80 speakers and panellists, and just over 600 attendees. Speakers and participants were from many different countries and included researchers, activists, practitioners and policy makers.
If you have any questions about the conference or the SOGICA project, please feel free to contact us at info@sogica.org.
Videos of conference sessions
Below are links to video recordings of the conference presentations and key-note speeches. We have also included links to some Powerpoint presentations and papers by individual presenters who have been kind enough to share them. For confidentiality reasons, we have not included video footage of Q&A sessions and some presentations and workshops have also been omitted at the request of contributors.