Refugee Status for Christians Facing Blasphemy Charges in Pakistan
by Katia Bianchini
Question(s) at stake
1) Whether Christians in Pakistan face serious discrimination that amounts to persecution under the Refugee Convention or the ECHR. 2) What risk that Evangelical Christians face in Pakistan. 3) What particular discrimination Christian women face in Pakistan.
Outcome of the ruling
In general, “Christians in Pakistan are a religious minority” and “suffer discrimination”, but this does not “amount to a real risk of persecution” under the Refugee Convention or the ECHR. (p. 1) Furthermore, “evangelical Christians face a greater risk than those Christians who are not publicly active.” (p. 2)
Christian women, like all women, “face discrimination and may be at a heightened risk but this falls short of a” generalized real risk. (p. 2) An analysis of the facts is necessary in each situation in which women or Christian women are involved. “Factors such as their age, place of residence, and socio-economic” background are to be taken into consideration “when assessing the risk of abduction, conversions, and forced marriages.” (p. 2)
The appeal was dismissed in light of the country guidance (CG).
Country:
Official citation
AK and SK (Christians: risk) Pakistan CG [2014] UKUT 00569 (IAC)
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Applicant's credibility Assessment Asylum seeker Failure of State protection Internal relocation alternative Persecution Real Risk of persecution Refugee status Religion or belief
Tag(s):
Christians Evangelical Christians Christian woman
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.