Dr Sharon Cowan speaks to European Court of Human Rights about rape and asylum project

Dr Sharon Cowan travelled to Strasbourg earlier this month to talk to the European Court of Human Rights about the Nuffield Foundation funded project on rape and asylum, that she recently completed with colleagues Ms Helen Baillot (independent researcher) and Professor Vanessa Munro (University of Nottingham).

The presentation to the European Court of Human Rights was attended by judges, lawyers and others in the Council of Europe who are working towards a Common European Asylum System. The first study of its kind in the world, the work of Dr Cowan and her colleagues focused on the way that women seeking asylum, whose application included a claim of rape, are treated through the UK asylum process. The study produced 3 main research findings:

1. when rape is disclosed, some of the ‘myths’ within the criminal justice system about rape - for example that late disclosure or calm demeanour indicates a fabricated claim - spill over into the asylum context, particularly in the views of decision-makers;

2.There is a profound lack of resources for support for those in the asylum system dealing with sexual violence (and trauma more generally), and indeed particularly amongst Immigration Judges, a culture that discourages help-seeking or even the acknowledgment that there is a problem of emotional labour and a risk of vicarious trauma in asylum work;

3.   the biggest problem facing asylum-seeking women who allege rape is establishing credibility - this manifests itself in a series of assumptions about what makes a credible claim, but without proper understanding of why a woman’s narrative may be inconsistent, delayed, or relayed without emotion.

This research clearly has policy implications for the ways that the structure of the UK asylum system, as well as working cultures around decision-making, have a negative impact on asylum-seeking women whose claim involved a rape allegation. As a result of this research, the Judicial College invited the research team to present their findings at an annual training event for all immigration judges across the UK. The team have also recently presented to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in London, as well as the EUI in Florence, and various other Universities nationally and internationally (eg in the US, Canada, Italy, London, and Oxford).

A briefing report on this project can be downloaded from the Nuffield Foundation website.