Decision Making Challenges Concerning Christian Converts in Iran: AS (Iran) v SSHD [2017]
by Katia Bianchini
Question(s) at stake
Whether adequate reasons were provided by tribunals when offering their conclusion that the appellant had failed to demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution under the Refugee Convention on the grounds of (a) her illegal exit from Iran, (b) her membership in a social group (that of women suffering domestic violence), and (c) her conversion to Christianity.
Outcome of the ruling
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appellant’s claim on all grounds. According to its ruling, since we should “avoid a requirement of perfection”, the tribunals’ reasoning had been sufficient to establish that they had not erred, and that the appellant was not at risk of persecution.
Country:
Official citation
AS (Iran) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] ECWA 1539
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Grounds/Reasons of persecution Membership of a particular social group Refugee status Asylum seeker Religion or belief
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.