Persekiojimas dėl lyties pabėgėlių teisėje ; Gender-Based persecution in refugee law

Abstract

GENDER-BASED PERSECUTION IN REFUGEE LAW Gender-based persecution is one of the most problematic aspects in Refugee Law, because gender-based persecution was not included as a separate ground of persecution in the 1951 m. Geneva Convention. Recently the number of application based on the gender-based persecution has greatly increased. However, unanimous opinion on gender-based persecution is still not found, thought particular standards are highly required. Furthermore, despite gender–based persecution could be related to persecution either suffered by women or men, almost in all the cases gender-based persecution is related to persecution suffered by women or girls, who most often face gender-specific forms of persecution. That is why gender-based persecution is analysed as persecution suffered by women in this paper. It should be noted that basically international acts and documents, legal doctrine and national jurisprudence are analysed in this paper, because in these sources the conception of gender-based persecution are best revealed. Therefore, this paper is divided in the parts, where the most problematic questions of gender-based persecution are discussed: gender-based persecution as persecution based on conventional grounds, that is, gender-based persecution as persecution because of membership of a particular social group, political opinion or religion; well-founded fear of gender-based persecution; acts considered as gender-based persecution; discrimination against women amounting to persecution; gender-based persecution by non-state agents and the failure of State protection. In addition, the attention should be paid to the fact that the jurisprudence on gender-based persecution of common law countries and civil law countries differs distinctly. So it should be noted, that higher standards of protection are applied in common law countries in the cases of gender-based persecution.