Blood Feuds between Families as a Ground for Refugee Status: EH (Blood Feuds) Albania CG [2012]
by Iulia Mirzac and Katia Bianchini
Question(s) at stake
Whether members of a family involved in a blood feud in Albania form a “particular social group” under the Refugee Convention and whether internal relocation is possible for them.
Outcome of the ruling
Members of a family involved in a “blood feud” in Albania constitute a “particular social group” (PSG) under the Refugee Convention.
The legislative steps taken by the Albanian authorities in parts of the country where Kanun law predominates, especially in the north, “do not yet provide protection from Kanun-related blood-taking if an active feud exists and affects the individual claimant” (para. 3). Relocating in another part of country, which is less influenced by the Kanun, may be a safe option, depending on how influential, powerful and committed to the feud the aggressor clan’s is.
A claim for refugee status will normally succeed where a blood feud is established and internal relocation is not available, making self-containment the only option of protection against the risk of being killed by the opposing clan. Where an appellant is the next in line for killing, and depending on the likelihood that the aggressor clan would kill the appellant and its ability to do so, the same risk would also be capable of engaging Articles 2 and 3 of the ECHR.
A non-Kanun “modern blood feud” that would extend the risk of death to adult males from the avenger family and to non-males from families on both sides is not established.
The present appellant’s claim for international protection was refused as he did not establish that his family was involved in an active “blood feud”.
Country:
Official citation
EH (blood feuds) Albania CG [2012] UKUT 00348 (IAC)
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Applicant's credibility Evidence Grounds/Reasons of persecution Membership of a particular social group Real Risk of persecution Refusal of asylum
Tag(s):
Bibliographic information
Access case report
View case report in the CUREDI databaseAbout the authors
Iulia Mirzac (Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham)
Doctoral Candidate at the University of Birmingham carrying out ESRC-funded research on judicial interpretations of undefined concepts within the UK anti-trafficking framework in England and Wales. Teaching Associate on the 'Decolonising Legal Methods' module at Birmingham Law School. Research Consultant at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, providing legal commentaries of asylum decisions based on gender-based violence published under the Institute's CUREDI database.
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.