ICJ and others joint intervention in A.T. v. Sweden

Europe and Central Asia
Issue: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Document Type: Legal Submission
Date: 2015

Today, the ICJ and other rights groups presented joint written submissions to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of A.T. v. Sweden (Application No. 78701/14).

The case arises from the Swedish authorities’ dismissal of an asylum application.

The submissions, presented by the ICJ, the AIRE Centre (Advice on Individual Rights in Europe), Amnesty International (AI), ILGA-EUROPE (the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) and the UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG), focus on:

  • the obligation to ensure that the risk upon removal be assessed so as to guarantee that the protection of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms be practical and effective;
  • whether requiring coerced, including self-enforced, suppression of a fundamental aspect of one’s identity — as enforced concealment of one’s same-sex sexual orientation entails — is compatible with the Convention, in particular, Article 3;
  • whether the criminalization of consensual same-sex sexual conduct gives rise to a real risk of Article 3 prohibited treatment, thus triggering non-refoulement obligations under that provision of the Convention; and
  • the significance of the EU asylum acquis and the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, including the joined cases Minister voor Immigratie en Asiel v X (C-199/12), Y (C-200/12), and Z (C-201/12) v Minister voor Immigratie en Asiel.

Sweden-A.T.v.SWEDEN FINAL AMICUS-Advocacy-legal submission-2015-ENG (full text in PDF)

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