Abstract
Despite the proposed reform of the Common European Asylum System in 2016, European Union legislation still remains silent on which methods should be used to prove asylum claims based on sexual orientation. The author identifies some problematic cases, in which selected European Union countries face problems with assessing the credibility of lesbian, gay and bisexual asylum seekers. One of them is Czech Republic, where a controversial practice of phallometric tests was recently used to prove homosexuality, although the practice was supposed to be abandoned. The chapter further compares the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union with case law of European Court of Human Rights in this area to identify the most common challenges. It aims to question whether the two courts result effective in clarifying which practices are admissible in asylum proceedings and which methods should be prohibited, as they may violate asylum seekers’ basic human rights. The author argues that there are significant contradictions in the judgements of the two courts, which cause problems both to the decision makers and asylum seekers and that it is urgently needed to adopt and implement common European guidelines.
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter focuses only on asylum applications based on sexual orientation (lodged by lesbians, gays and bisexuals) and is not dealing with asylum applications based on gender identity (transgender and intersex applicants), as there is a lack of information and cases concerning these applicants. The chapter is based on legal situation as of 25 January 2018.
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Mrazova, A. (2019). Legal Requirements to Prove Asylum Claims Based on Sexual Orientation: A Comparison Between the CJEU and ECtHR Case Law. In: Güler, A., Shevtsova, M., Venturi, D. (eds) LGBTI Asylum Seekers and Refugees from a Legal and Political Perspective. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91905-8_10
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