WOMEN OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH AS “VICTIMS OF OPPRESSIVE CULTURES”: LAW AND PRACTICE ON GENDER-BASED ASYLUM

AUTHOR – SAKSHI TIRTHANI, PH.D. SCHOLAR AT CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL LEGAL STUDIES, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY, NEW DELHI, INDIA

BEST CITATION – SAKSHI TIRTHANI, WOMEN OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH AS “VICTIMS OF OPPRESSIVE CULTURES”: LAW AND PRACTICE ON GENDER-BASED ASYLUM, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 4 (1) OF 2024, PG. 1707-1711, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344

Abstract

The 1951 Refugee Convention has been criticized for its gender-blindness. There is no explicit mention of the word ‘sex’ or ‘gender’ as grounds for refugee status. However, over the last three decades, there has been much emphasis on gender-sensitive interpretation of the refugee definition. Despite the positive developments in international refugee law, asylum claims based on gender-related forms of persecution pose interpretive challenges, and are inadequately and inconsistently addressed in domestic jurisdictions. When women from the Global South apply for asylum in the countries of the Global North on the basis of gender-based persecution, they are labelled as vulnerable victims of their oppressive cultures. The paper discusses this practice in detail, with examples. The author argues that portraying asylum-seeking women as passive victims and simply attributing this status to the cultures of their home countries is a flawed approach. The author makes some suggestions to rectify this problematic tendency, building on what UNHCR and various scholars have stated in this regard.