The Meaning of Persecution for Albino Children in Nigeria
by Katia Bianchini
Question(s) at stake
Whether the discrimination faced by an albino child in Nigeria could amount to persecution.
Outcome of the ruling
The discrimination faced by an albino child in Nigeria could amount to persecution, depending on the individual personal circumstances. A child can be said to be at risk of harm, or of facing a risk of harm in a given circumstance, even if an adult placed in a comparable situation would not face the same risk.
The appeal was allowed, and refugee status was granted under the Refugee Convention and on humanitarian grounds.
Country:
Official citation
JA (child – risk of persecution) Nigeria [2016] UKUT 00560 (IAC)
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Grounds/Reasons of persecution Membership of a particular social group Refugee status Asylum seeker
Tag(s):
Bibliographic information
Access case report
View case report in the CUREDI databaseAbout the authors
Katia Bianchini (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department Law and Anthropology, Germany)
Katia Bianchini is a Research Fellow of the Law and Anthropology Department of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. She holds a law degree from the University of Pavia (Italy), an LL.M. in Comparative Laws from the University of San Diego (California, USA), and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of York (UK). Her doctoral thesis provided an empirical and legal analysis of how the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons is implemented in ten EU states. She has also worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (Göttingen). Before engaging in research, she practised immigration and refugee law for ten years in the UK and the USA.
Bianchini has published in the field of refugee law, statelessness, and the rule of law in the context of sea migration. Her current research builds on her expertise in human rights and Italian law and looks at the treatment of deceased sea migrants in the South of Italy.