Believe It or Not Conference

International asylum conference on credibility assessment in SOGIESC cases

The full day conference included a keynote speech by Nuno Ferreira, professor of law at the University of Sussex, a speech by a representative of UNHCR, a speech by a former asylum-seeker, panel discussions, paper presentations, and workshops exploring solutions to improve the credibility assessment of SOGIESC asylum claims without defaulting to models or stereotypes, and the impact of current credibility assessments on LGBTQI+ people who have sought asylum.

PhD candidate, Hedayat Selim, participated in the panel on Means of Proof, where she presented her doctoral research findings, focusing on the psychological aspects of queer asylum determinations. She focused on three key aspects of the research: (1) asylum officials’ justifications for rejecting the credibility of these claims, (2) the distribution of different question types in interviews with sexual minorities and the extent to which these questions invite applicants to freely describe their narratives; (3) asylum applicants’ reported reasons for delaying the disclosure of their sexual orientation 

The Striking Sirens coalition lauded the expanding body of research in this important area, evidenced by the growing number of doctoral research projects focusing on queer asylum decision-making. The perspectives of many different stakeholders were represented, including activists, lawyers, asylum-seekers, NGOs, academics and others. It is clear that asylum decision making in SOGIESC cases should not be based on the application of any given model of interviewing, as this restricts the applicants’ accounts and presumes the universality of a narrative of “oppression to liberation”, which fails to describe the experiences of many individual applicants. It is also evident that decisionmakers need to place more focus on whether the applicant would face harm upon return, rather than seeking to establish the genuineness of their SOGIESC. More weight should be given to the applicant’s self-identification as a member of a sexual minority. Finally, the Striking Sirens coalition highlighted that SOGIESC cases should not be regarded as somehow exceptional, but rather that they are embedded within a broader culture of disbelief that characterizes asylum determinations in general. Hence, the focus should be on improving credibility assessments in general, including in this particular category of cases. Several presentations highlighted the need to train asylum decision-makers on SOGIESC issues, and that the training should result in systemic organizational change given the high turnover in this field of work. Moreover, decision-makers are encouraged to adopt a more intersectional approach to their decisions, by considering how the different facets of an applicant’s identity shape their experiences and how they describe their claim in the asylum interview. Finally, there is a need for more cross-cultural awareness among decision-makers about the experiences of sexual and gender minorities worldwide.

See Hedayat’s presentation below!