An EU-US Comparative Legal Analysis of Transgender Asylum Adjudication

UnLocal’s Queer Immigrant Justice Project (QIJP) is proudly publishing “An EU-US Comparative Legal Analysis of Transgender Asylum Adjudication.” This resource sheds light on important transgender asylum cases.  Based on the UNHCR – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Guidelines and written by Mariza Avgeri, a lecturer, lawyer and advocate from Greece

This report attempts a comparative review of the state of the art of asylum adjudication for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals in the US and the EU. The points of reference are the UNHCR Handbook and guidelines on particular social group, burden of proof and LGBTQI+ asylum claims. This report will review the pluralist human rights regime for transgender asylum claimants in the EU drawing on Court of Justice of the European Union jurisprudence as well as the Recast Qualification Directive of the Common European Asylum System, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and European Asylum Support Office guidelines. At the second part of the research, one will focus on particular social group and persecution practice of Asylum and Immigration Authorities in the US for transgender and gender nonconforming claims which will be juxtaposed with Board of Immigration Appeals and Supreme Court relevant case law. Lack of trans health care and legal gender recognition, as well as the inclusion of gender expression in the asylum grounds will be problematized in the recommendations for the EU/US, as well as the divergence of practice from UNHCR guidelines.