When: Thursday, February 24, 2022, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PMWhere: TBA
Refugee women in the U.K. are increasingly oppressed, marginalized and even displaced as “undeserving of protection” and “inherently vulnerable,” experiences that often go unnoticed in our very communities. On February 21st at 6pm, the student-led forum of the Queen Mary Human Rights Law Centre will be hosting an in-person panel with the following notable speakers: PhD student Ellen Allde, Founder of For Her Child Ruvimbo Mutyambizi, AMERA International Officer for Rescue Wing Ilim Baturalp and finally, an honourary guest who is a retired Immigrant Tribunal Judge, Catriona Jarvis.
The lived experiences of refugee women and the growing risks they face under the current system reveal urgent need for policy reform and meaningful changes within the socio-legal environment. One of the key issues this event will address is the concept of credibility and vulnerability as it applies to protection claims for refugee women seeking asylum. From our panel, Ruvimbo, who came to this country as a refugee with valuable lived experiences to share, brings to life the reality of credibility and vulnerability through her personal stories. Through theoretical framework as well as professional and personal experiences, our speakers will help to raise awareness behind discriminatory policies and legal practices that violate the fundamental rights of refugee women.
This event will give students and anyone interested the chance to gain practical insights and volunteering opportunities that are grounded in creating a supportive environment for refugee women and families.
**Please note this is a face-to-face event.
Ellen Allde, Leverhulme Doctoral Scholar - PhD Candidate in Law, LLM Human Rights Law, is writing her PhD thesis, in which her research challenges bordering as an indistinct space created and governed by exceptional law. Ellen will begin the discussion by providing a theoretical framework for concepts of credibility and vulnerability.
“The critique of gender and decolonial scholarship reminds us that distinctions and hierarchies both persist and are further engrained when states assume exceptional powers. Bordering is a site where states have historically assumed extensive, unchecked exceptional power, justified as in the national or state interest but at the expense of protections of non-citizens. Protections or the lack of protections, are equally suggested to apply without distinction to those at the border. This prompts a two-part analysis for consideration at this panel event: (i) how and against whom exceptional law differentiates, and (ii) the role of narratives in sustaining the legitimacy of exceptional law, embedding and embodying mobile people within them. The simultaneous separation or division of mobile people within this indistinct space—i.e. the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’, ‘regular’ and ‘irregular’, ‘illegal’ and ‘legal’, ‘vulnerable’ and ‘not-vulnerable’—provides insight into the paradox of appearing indistinct whilst maintaining distinction within. In bordering, states consolidate their power and avoid accountability by appearing indistinct. They utilise narratives of exceptionalism and humanitarianism to homogenise bordering spaces, but maintain their legitimacy by selectively utilising distinctions. In situating mobile women within this analysis, this process is both made visible and the distinctions located.
The testimony of mobile women reveals how bordering and exceptional law remains a space of lived distinction whilst governance appears indistinct. The analysis goes further to address how utilising distinctions further produces and reinforces the precarity of women. The language of vulnerability and credibility, pathways supposedly created to address compounding risks and protect the asylum system, instead narrow pathways to protection and further victimise mobile people.” – Ellen Allde
Ruvimbo Mutyambizi, is founder of For Her Child, an organization in London aimed at creating a sanctuary practice framework and culture in the U.K. committed to protecting refugee rights in motherhood and childhood. Ruvi advocates for keeping refugee children from being extraordinarily at greater risk of being forced into care and adoption than other parented children. Ruvimbo came to this country as a refugee and has valuable lived experiences to share and contribute towards our understanding of credibility and vulnerability.
“Most people seeking asylum will not anticipate the multitude of issues that they will encounter before they can demonstrate credibility. Nor will most know, early on, just how important it is to understand and satisfy the need of the court to identify the credibility of submissions in support of a protection claim before it can uphold an appeal against a Home Office decision to refuse an application for asylum. For an applicant who has already failed credibility in the eyes of one decision maker, a demonstration of believability at Immigration Tribunal, or any other court, can be hard to deliver on. In this talk, drawing from my position as a woman and mother of colour, I discuss the relevance of credibility having considered:
My talk is intended to be largely exploratory and hopefully unifying with Queen Mary law students and others joining “Refugee Women’s Rights Violations and Struggles” who have a keen interest in this vital and vocal student led platform. It is therefore as much an opportunity for having access to an important audience as it is an opportunity for me as founder of For Her Child to receive the voice that you have on the conflicts and consistencies of asylum and law in the UK. See you there!” - Ruvimbo Mutyambizi
Ilim Baturalp is a Partnership Officer for Rescue Wing with AMERA International, an organization that is also partnered with Queen Mary to provide practical experience for students through an immigration internship based module. Ilim helps organize online workshops to assist refugee women in camps located in Kakuma. Ilim is involved with an upcoming pilot project to teach the basics of computer science and coding to the women in Kakuma with the hope of inspiring them to learn more about this field and maybe even help them pursue a path in it as a career.
Ilim will be sharing her experiences with refugee women in Kakuma, with the potential to remotely involve some of the refugee women to participate in our discussion.
Catriona Jarvis, LLM, MA, is a retired judge from the United Kingdom. Most recently she sat in the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber). She is a former chair of the Prisoners of Conscience Appeal Fund, trustee (and former chair) of the Inderpal Rahal Memorial Trust and the Chair of Trustees of Methoria.
She is co-convener, with Syd Bolton, of Last Rights. The Last Rights programme is creating a new framework of respect for the rights of missing and dead refugees and migrants and bereaved family members, to transform research and legal principles into deliverable, real benefits and respect for human rights.
The two are also co-conveners of Equal Justice for Migrant Children, a project launched by the First Rights programme of Methoria, which aims to promote a model of justice for migrant children by building upon the rights acquired by children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Catriona is the author and co-author of various articles and blogs and a contributor to handbooks on refugee and migration law. She has a particular interest in improvement of law, procedure and practice, especially concerning women and children; has co-drafted guidelines on gender; unaccompanied children, vulnerable persons, as well as cross-jurisdictional protocols and professional development guidance to assist judges in the family, criminal and immigration/asylum fields to work more effectively.
Methoria is a charity registered in the UK, No.1188043.