Independent human rights documentation and sexual minorities: An ongoing challenge for the Canadian refugee determination process

International Journal of Human Rights

Volumn 13, Issue 2-3, 2009, Pages 437-476

  LaViolette, Nicole ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA   (Canada)

Author keywords

Canada; Gay and lesbian; Human rights organisations; Refugee law; Sexual minorities; Sexual orientation

Indexed keywords

EID: 77950779372     PISSN: 13642987     EISSN: 1744053X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13642980902758234     Document Type: Article

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46. Sexual minority claimants have also founded their fear of persecution on political opinion: see Re U.L.X. In addition, sexual minority claimants have founded their fear of persecution on membership in a particular social group based on gender: see Re C.L.Q. [1996] CRDD No. 145 (QL).
47. It is important to underscore that a claimant does not actually have to be a member of the particular social group. According to Ward, it is sufficient that the agents of persecution believe the person to be a member of the particular social group. This principle was applied by the Federal Court to claims based on sexual orientation in Dykon v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration) [1994] FCJ No. 1409 (QL). The Federal Court held that ‘it is totally irrelevant… whether [the refugee claimant] was in fact a homosexual or not’ (para. 3). It is the beliefs of the persecutors that are important, and whether the individuals responsible for the persecution perceive the claimant to be a homosexual.
48. Nicole LaViolette, ‘Sexual Orientation and the Refugee Determination Process: Questioning a Claimant about their Membership in the Particular Social Group’, in Asylum Based on Sexual Orientation: A Resource Guide, ed. Sydney Levy (San Francisco: IGLHRC, 1996).
49. Nicole LaViolette, ‘Sexual Orientation and the Refugee Determination Process: Questioning a Claimant about their Membership in the Particular Social Group’ (on file with author).
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56. Catherine Dauvergne and Jenni Millbank, ‘Burdened by Proof: How the Australian Refugee Review Tribunal Has Failed Lesbian and Gay Asylum Seekers’, Federal Law Review 31(2003): 299.
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58. Human Rights Watch, ‘Two Recent HRW Actions’, press release, 24 July 1995. The International Commission of Jurists incorporated sexual minority equality into its mandate in 1994
59. John Fisher, ‘A Revolution that’s Going Global’, Xtra!, 5 August 1994, 13. The first Canadian NGO report on human rights violations against gay men and lesbians was published in April 1996 by the Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA)
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68. Information produced by Reporters Without Borders was included in a National Documentation Package on China: IRB, National Documentation Package - China, 19 March 2008, http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/research/ndp/index_e.htm?id=598 (accessed 29 November 2008).
69. In a similar package about El Salvador, the IRB cited a report from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions: IRB, National Documentation Package - El Salvador, 19 March 2008, http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/research/ndp/index_e.htm?id=605 (accessed 29 November 2008).
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88. The author reviewed responses of the Directorate entitled ‘Information Requests’, which represent answers to questions received from then Convention Refugee Determination Division Board adjudicators.
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98. In fact, the professional development workshop addressed another recommendation made by the Canadian Council for Refugees, which called on the Board to provide training for staff and RPD adjudicators on issues relating to documentation; see Canadian Council for Refugees, Addressing Claims Based on Sexual Orientation.
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100. Ghassan Kassisieh, From Lives of Fear to Lives of Freedom.
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127. Daniel Ottosson, State-Sponsored Homophobia.
128. Garcia v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) [2005] FCJ No. 1008 (QL).
129. United Nations Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders, UN ECOSOC, 57th Sess., E/CN.4/2001/94 (2001), 24, http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/d6c1b351bf405ad3c1256a25005109bc/$FILE/G0110638.pdf (accessed 29 November 2008)
130. Louise Arbour, ‘LGBT Human Rights’.
131. Daniel Ottosson, State-Sponsored Homophobia.
132. Human Rights Watch, ‘We Need a Law for Liberation’, 5.
133. Human Rights Watch, Homophobia, 11.
134. Michael Battista, Letter to Jean-Guy Fleury, Chairperson, IRB, 4 December 2002 (on file with author)
135. Joel Dupuis, ‘Believe the Hype: Refuge Evaluated According to Tourist Info’, Xtra!, 9 January 2003, http://archives.xtra.ca/Story.aspx?s=14751297 (accessed 29 November 2008).
136. Catherine Dauvergne and Jenni Millbank, ‘Burdened by Proof’, 317-20.
137. The RPD added, ‘It is reasonable to infer that if gays and lesbians were being persecuted then these reports would have said so because Amnesty reports makes a point of referring to violations of human rights.’ IRB, Reasons for Decision - File A99-01249, 28 June 2000, 3-4 (on file with author).
138. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Shwaba 2007 FC 80, [2007] FCJ No. 119 (QL).
139. Ghassan Kassisieh, From Lives of Fear to Lives of Freedom, 38, citing RRT Reference N04/49352 (unreported, O’Brien, 30 September 2004).
140. Mirko Bagaric and Penny Dimopoulos, ‘Discrimination as the Touchstone of Persecution in Refugee Law’, International Journal of the Sociology of Law 32, no. 4 (2004): 303.
141. Ward v. Canada (Attorney General), 734.
142. Rajudeen v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration) [1984], 55 NR 129, 133-4 (FCA).
143. See Chan v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration) (1993) 20 Imm. LR (2d) 181, 208, [1993] 3 FC 675, 156 NR 279 (FCA), affirmed on other grounds (1995) 128 DLR (4th) 213
144. Thirunavukkarasu v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration) (1993) 109 DLR (4th) 682 (FCA)
145. Surujpal v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration) (1985) 60 NR 73 (FCA).
146. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, UN Doc. HCR/IP/4/Eng/Rev.1 (1979), http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/3d58e13b4.pdf (accessed 29 November 2008).
147. Kevin Ritchie, ‘Successful Refugee Claims Decrease: Burgeoning Queer Movements at Home MayWork against Homos’, Xtra!, 17 January 2007, http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=2556&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2 (accessed 29 November 2008).
148. Ghassan Kassisieh, From Lives of Fear to Lives of Freedom, 37.
149. Ghassan Kassisieh, From Lives of Fear to Lives of Freedom, 38.
150. Amnesty International, Crimes of Hate, 27.
151. Ghassan Kassisieh, From Lives of Fear to Lives of Freedom, 37.
152. Birsan v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) [1998] FCJ No. 1861 (QL).
153. Ghassan Kassisieh, From Lives of Fear to Lives of Freedom, 34.
154. Sonia Katyal, ‘Sexuality and Sovereignty: The Global Limits and Possibilities of Lawrence’, William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 14, no. 4 (2006): 1448.
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156. Ward, Ward v. Canada (Attorney General), 724-5.
157. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration) v. Villafranca (1992) 18 Imm. LR (2d) 130 (FCA)
158. Sampayo v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) [2004] RPDD No. 324 (QL)
159. Valdes v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration).
160. IRB, ‘Jurisprudential Guides’, http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/references/policy/juriguides/index_e.htm (accessed 29 November 2008).
161. Immigration & Refugee Act.
162. Shannon Minter, ‘Lesbians and Asylum: Overcoming Barriers to Access’, in Asylum Based on Sexual Orientation: A Resource Guide, ed. Sydney Levy (San Francisco: IGLHRC, 1996), IB/3, IB/5-6
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164. Amnesty International, Crimes of Hate, 19.
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174. The case referred to the following report: LAMBDA Warsaw Association, Report on Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation in Poland (Warsaw, 2001).
175. Human Rights Watch, Hated to Death, 2.
176. James C. Hathaway, ‘The Michigan Guidelines on the Internal Protection Alternative’, Michigan Journal of International Law 21, no. 1 (1999): 211.
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179. Human Rights Watch, ‘We Need a Law of Liberation’.
180. Gutierrez v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) [2005] RPDD No. 179 (QL).
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183. Andrew Reding, Sexual Orientation and Human Rights in the Americas (New York: World Policy Institute, 2003), 55-62
184. Tamara Letkeman, ‘Gay Man Killed after Refugee Claim Denied’.
185. IRB, ‘Treatment of Homosexuals and Availability of State Protection’, responses to requests for information, June 2006, http://www.cisr-irb.gc.ca/fr/recherche/rdi/index_f.htm?action=record.viewrec&gotorec=450264 (accessed 29 November 2008).
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