Gender-Based Persecution in Ethiopia – RG (Ethiopia) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2006] EWCA Civ 339
by Katia Bianchini
Question(s) at stake
Whether, under the Refugee Convention, women and girls from Ethiopia constitute a particular social group (PSG) and, if they do, whether relocation to another part of Ethiopia should be seen as a feasible option for them to pursue if seeking refuge.
Outcome of the ruling
The Court of Appeal ruled that women and girls in Ethiopia constitute a particular social group under the Refugee Convention and allowed the appeal. However, it remitted the case on the internal relocation option.
Country:
Official citation
RG (Ethiopia) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2006] EWCA Civ 339
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Asylum seeker Domestic violence Gender based persecution Grounds/Reasons of persecution Membership of a particular social group Real Risk of persecution Refugee status
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.