Flykting på grund av politisk uppfattning - Ett genusrättsvetenskapligt perspektiv
(2017) LAGF03 20171Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Inom den genusrättsvetenskapliga framställningen har författare framfört hur 1951 års konvention om flyktingars rättsliga ställning utformats och tolkats utifrån ett manligt perspektiv. Det kan, enligt bland andra Maria Bexelius, förklaras genom att kön påverkar rätten. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka vad begreppet ”kön” innebär och om det kan anses påverka bedömningen av vilka omständigheter som kan hänföras till rekvisiten förföljelse på grund av politisk uppfattning i 4 kap. 1 § utlänningslag (2005:716). Den svenska flyktingdefinitionen motsvarar i stort sett den i konventionen.
I den genusrättsvetenskapliga litteraturen beskrivs ”kön” som något socialt konstruerat vilket knyter an till maktförhållanden mellan könen.... (More) - Inom den genusrättsvetenskapliga framställningen har författare framfört hur 1951 års konvention om flyktingars rättsliga ställning utformats och tolkats utifrån ett manligt perspektiv. Det kan, enligt bland andra Maria Bexelius, förklaras genom att kön påverkar rätten. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka vad begreppet ”kön” innebär och om det kan anses påverka bedömningen av vilka omständigheter som kan hänföras till rekvisiten förföljelse på grund av politisk uppfattning i 4 kap. 1 § utlänningslag (2005:716). Den svenska flyktingdefinitionen motsvarar i stort sett den i konventionen.
I den genusrättsvetenskapliga litteraturen beskrivs ”kön” som något socialt konstruerat vilket knyter an till maktförhållanden mellan könen. Det formas genom föreställningar om hur kvinnor och män ska vara i ett visst sammanhang. Vid denna sociala definition av kvinnor och män är skiljelinjen mellan privat och offentligt central. Män anses verka inom den offentliga sfären medan kvinnor bedöms tillhöra den privata.
Att kvinnor associeras med den privata sfären medför, enligt litteraturen, konsekvenser vid tillämpning av Genèvekonventionen. Vid tillämpning av konventionen bedöms främst aktiviteter inom den offentliga sfären utgöra politiska handlingar. Mindre formella handlingar som att motsätta sig diskriminerande lagar eller sociala normer riskerar att kategoriseras som privata handlingar. Därmed riskerar dessa handlingar att inte betraktas som politiska i konventionell mening. Litteraturen skildrar även hur ”lågaktiva” handlingar som att delta i NGO:s inte alltid erkänns som politiska.
Studien av sju svenska fall visar att domstolarna inte erkände motstånd mot socialt förtryck som politiska handlingar. Fallen avhandlade situationer där kvinnor motsatte sig giftermål, ingick utomäktenskapliga relationer samt valde att förvärvsarbeta tvärtemot vad samhällsnormen krävde.
I tre fall bedömde domstolen istället att kvinnorna var förföljda på grund av kön. Kön utgör ett exempel på vad som kan skapa tillhörighet till en viss samhällsgrupp och därmed flyktingskap enligt 4 kap. 1 § utlänningslagen. Ett vidare syfte med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur förföljelse på grund av politisk uppfattning förhåller sig till förföljelse på grund av kön.
Det går, utifrån förarbeten till utlänningslagen, att argumentera för att förföljelsegrunderna överlappar varandra. Under de båda grunderna går det nämligen att inordna förföljelse av kvinnor som utgår ifrån kvinnors oförmåga eller ovilja att leva efter vissa sociala normer eller diskriminerande lagar. Juridiskt sett blir det inte någon skillnad om förföljelsen bedöms utgå från en persons politiska uppfattning eller dess kön. Den sökande beviljas uppehållstillstånd så som flykting. Att i alltför stor utsträckning hänföra kvinnors asylskäl till en könsrelaterad grund kan dock, enligt genusrättsvetenskapen, riskera att reproducera föreställningar om att det endast är män som har politiska åsikter. (Less) - Abstract
- Per literature in the field of gender studies, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was drafted and has been interpreted from a male perspective. Pursuant to Maria Bexelius, this is an outcome of how gender affects the law. By studying the meaning of “gender” this essay aims to examine how gender affects the judgement of which circumstances that constitute persecution for reasons of political opinion in the context of 4 kap. 1 § Aliens Act. The definition of the term refugee in the Aliens Act corresponds with the definition as described in the Refugee Convention.
The notion of gender refers, pursuant to gender studies, to a social construction regarding power relations between sexes. Gender is constructed through the... (More) - Per literature in the field of gender studies, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was drafted and has been interpreted from a male perspective. Pursuant to Maria Bexelius, this is an outcome of how gender affects the law. By studying the meaning of “gender” this essay aims to examine how gender affects the judgement of which circumstances that constitute persecution for reasons of political opinion in the context of 4 kap. 1 § Aliens Act. The definition of the term refugee in the Aliens Act corresponds with the definition as described in the Refugee Convention.
The notion of gender refers, pursuant to gender studies, to a social construction regarding power relations between sexes. Gender is constructed through the notion of how women and men should behave in a certain context. When discussing the social definition of women and men the private/ public dichotomy is essential. Men are regarded as active in the public sphere whilst women are associated with the private one.
The fact that women are associated with the private sphere has consequences for the interpretation of the Refugee Convention, pursuant to literature. When conventionally considering asylum claims, primarily activities within the public sphere are judged as political activities. Less formal activities such as opposing discriminatory law or social norms run the risk of being incorrectly viewed as personal conduct. These activities thus risk not being regarded as political ones. In addition, “low-level” activities like activism in NGO:s are not always regarded as political activities.
The study of seven Swedish cases shows that the court did not recognise activities in the private sphere as political activities. These cases concerned women who refused forced marriage, had relationships outside of marriage and worked, all contrary to social and religious norms.
In three cases women were instead granted asylum because of gender-related persecution and not because of political opinion. Gender constitutes a subcategory of the ground membership of a particular social group, in 4 kap. 1 § Aliens Act. Another purpose of this essay is to examine how persecution for reasons of political opinion relates to persecution on grounds of gender.
Based on legislative history, it could be argued that the two grounds of persecution overlap. These grounds recognise persecution based on women’s refusal or incapacity to conform to social norms or discriminatory laws. Regardless of whether the persecution is judged based on a person’s political opinion or gender the legal outcome is the same. The asylum seeker is granted residence permit as a refugee. However, per gender studies, framing any persecution of women as gender-related may reproduce the notion of only men having political opinions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8908313
- author
- Sanded, Ulrika LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- LAGF03 20171
- year
- 2017
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Folkrätt, migrationsrätt
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 8908313
- date added to LUP
- 2017-06-29 16:13:42
- date last changed
- 2017-06-29 16:13:42
@misc{8908313,
abstract = {{Per literature in the field of gender studies, the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was drafted and has been interpreted from a male perspective. Pursuant to Maria Bexelius, this is an outcome of how gender affects the law. By studying the meaning of “gender” this essay aims to examine how gender affects the judgement of which circumstances that constitute persecution for reasons of political opinion in the context of 4 kap. 1 § Aliens Act. The definition of the term refugee in the Aliens Act corresponds with the definition as described in the Refugee Convention.
The notion of gender refers, pursuant to gender studies, to a social construction regarding power relations between sexes. Gender is constructed through the notion of how women and men should behave in a certain context. When discussing the social definition of women and men the private/ public dichotomy is essential. Men are regarded as active in the public sphere whilst women are associated with the private one.
The fact that women are associated with the private sphere has consequences for the interpretation of the Refugee Convention, pursuant to literature. When conventionally considering asylum claims, primarily activities within the public sphere are judged as political activities. Less formal activities such as opposing discriminatory law or social norms run the risk of being incorrectly viewed as personal conduct. These activities thus risk not being regarded as political ones. In addition, “low-level” activities like activism in NGO:s are not always regarded as political activities.
The study of seven Swedish cases shows that the court did not recognise activities in the private sphere as political activities. These cases concerned women who refused forced marriage, had relationships outside of marriage and worked, all contrary to social and religious norms.
In three cases women were instead granted asylum because of gender-related persecution and not because of political opinion. Gender constitutes a subcategory of the ground membership of a particular social group, in 4 kap. 1 § Aliens Act. Another purpose of this essay is to examine how persecution for reasons of political opinion relates to persecution on grounds of gender.
Based on legislative history, it could be argued that the two grounds of persecution overlap. These grounds recognise persecution based on women’s refusal or incapacity to conform to social norms or discriminatory laws. Regardless of whether the persecution is judged based on a person’s political opinion or gender the legal outcome is the same. The asylum seeker is granted residence permit as a refugee. However, per gender studies, framing any persecution of women as gender-related may reproduce the notion of only men having political opinions.}},
author = {{Sanded, Ulrika}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Flykting på grund av politisk uppfattning - Ett genusrättsvetenskapligt perspektiv}},
year = {{2017}},
}