I congreso de genero y asilo en Spain

Last week, I went to Bilbao to the Ist Congress of Asylum and Gender Based Persecution organized by CEAR-Euskadi. The experts addressed asylum claims of gender based persecution (as a particular social group) in Spain. Amongst the subjects addressed were, feminicidio in Cuidad Juarez in Mexico, sexual and reproductive rights in Colombia, the particular problems of obtaining asylum for lesbians and transsexuals who have a well-founded fear of persecution based on their sexual orientation-identity and human trafficking. The conference highlighted cases such as that of a lesbian woman from Cameroon who was denied asylum in spain. The judge rejected her application on the grounds that she was pregnant, even though the pregnancy was the result of rape at the hands of Moroccan trafficking gangs after she fled Cameroon. Much work still to be done!

Karen Musalo, American lawyer and academic of Hastings Law School (Center for Gender and Refugee Studies), who brought Re Kasinga and Re R.A, gave her speech on gender based persecution under US asylum law. Karen Musalo´s presentation highlighted the importance of establishing precedent under the US system and the stark difference in numbers between the US and Spain in accepting gender based asylum claims.

Of course, apart from Re Kasinga, gender based persecution is now well recognised in international, regional and national law. Think, Shah and Islam, Fornah and K (both UK cases, Jebari v Turkey (ECHR) and UNCHR Gender Guidelines.

My other recent thoughts are on law and film. Recently I have been working my way down the list of top 25 law movies according to the American bar Association. movies such as Karmer v. Karmer, 12 Angry Men, To Kill a Mockingbird all appear on the list (here: http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/the_25_greatest_legal_movies/)

Obviously, the list is rather common-law centric and some fantastic legal and human rights movies/documentaries are missing. But it did remind me of one of my favourite quotations from Philadephia:

Joe Miller: What do you love about the law, Andrew?
Andrew Beckett: I... many things... uh... uh... What I love the most about the law?
Joe Miller: Yeah.
Andrew Beckett: It's that every now and again - not often, but occasionally - you get to be a part of justice being done. That really is quite a thrill when that happens.

So true..