Objectives
The project had three objectives:
- To produce and post on the RRN site a concise but rich annotated bibliography of scholarship to date on LGBT and asylum issues. Much of this is legal research, but there are also a good number of articles and books from the social sciences. Three senior students worked on this project: Robert Lidstone, Raha Bahreini, and Sharalyn Jordan. The bibliography has been released on April 15, 2011 and is available at LGBT(link is external).
- To raise awareness of LGBT human rights violations and the persecution, forced migration, and asylum related to these. Osgoode Hall Law School hosted a number of events and the RRN collaborated with faculty there to highlight LGBT-related asylum, including Sexual Minority Refugees in Canada: Challenges and Opportunities held on April 18, 2011. More information can be found on: http://oppenheimer.mcgill.ca/Sexual-Minority-Refugees-in-Canada; (link is external)
- To build capacity in regions beyond Canada and the global North by working with interested partners in the global South. A small-scale sharing of resources and scholarship was successfully undertaken and completed with the Refugee Law Project (RLP) at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, where human rights atrocities and deaths have been attributed to LGBT identity. For further information, see: http://www.refugeelawproject.org (link is external).
Conferences, Events and Participation
- Events to raise awareness of issues faced by LGBT refugees including a public forum entitled, Sexual Minority Refugees in Canada: Challenges and Opportunities (link is external), University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, April 2011.
Publications
- LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Refugees and Sexual Orientation / Gender Identity Asylum: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Legal and Social Scientific Publications. (link is external) Contributors: Sharalyn Jordan, Raha Bahreini, Robert Lidstone. Released: April 2011.
Related Projects & Networks
- Refugee Law Project, School of Law, Centre for Justice and Forced Migrants, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. http://www.refugeelawproject.org (link is external) / http://www.refugeelawproject.org/our-work/gender-and-sexuality.html (link is external)
- Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada