Suchergebnisse

Contends that while international & state actions demonstrate a significant shift in understanding the nature & scope of gender-based persecution & acknowledging its existence, such changes stop short of indicating a broad acceptance of the expansion of the international definition of a refugee. Discussion opens with a historical overview of efforts to improve protection to asylum seekers with gender-based claims. The factors that impelled the issue of the refugee woman on to the international agenda in the late 1970s include the impact of the UN Decade for Women (1976-1985) & US & Canadian action, which helped to sustain pressure on the UNHCR. Developments in human rights laws deemed biased toward women are addressed. Attention turns to two historical cases related to expanding the refugee regime: adoption of the 1967 Protocol & the failure of the 1977 Conference on Territorial Asylum to codify the individual right to asylum. The implications of these cases for the progressive development of international protection for asylum seekers with gender-based claims are contemplated, suggesting that extant international conditions are not conducive to the creation of a narrowly drafted protocol that would adopt gender as a sixth category on which to base an asylum claim; advocates should take caution in pushing for a new protocol. J. Zendejas