The SOGICA final conference will now take place online from 7-9 July 2020. There is more information below and here is the link for registration (there is no  registration fee).

About the project

SOGICA – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Claims of Asylum: A European human rights challenge’ is a four-year project (2016-2020) funded by the European Research Council (ERC). Based in the School of Law at the University of Sussex, it aims to produce the necessary evidence base for a more just and humane asylum process for individuals seeking refuge in Europe on the basis of their SOGI.

To this end, since 2016, the project has studied the social and legal experiences of SOGI asylum claimants across Europe, by exploring the European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE) frameworks and by focusing on Germany, Italy and the UK as case studies. During this time, SOGICA has carried out more than 150 interviews and focus group discussions with asylum claimants, refugees, decision-makers, practitioners, and experts in the field, and has conducted observations of hearings of SOGI claimants in courts and tribunals. The team has produced a number of publications on different aspects of SOGI asylum (such as credibility, persecution, discretion, domestic and European adjudication of these claims) and made presentations at conferences and seminarsacross Europe. A database of materials, website of resources and network of more than 1,000 friends and allies beyond academia has been established. The SOGICA project will conclude in 2020 with the publication of a monograph and further peer-reviewed articles, all of which are intended to inform fairer SOGI asylum processes in Europe and greater sensitivity and humanity for SOGI minorities outside the legal process.