- Conference
- 2003 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 23 October 2002
- Decision
- Carried
Conference deplores the:
1)Widespread persecution of women on grounds of gender, gender identity and sexual orientation.
2)Criminalisation and official mistreatment of lesbian, bisexual and transgender (lbt) women in many countries.
3)United Kingdom Government’s failure to take this up with these countries.
4)Restrictive definitions of ‘family’ under immigration and asylum law.
5)Demonising and stigmatising of immigrants and asylum seekers, which both feeds off and fuels racism and community breakdown.
6)Failure to recognise that lesbian, bisexual and transgender (lbt) women fleeing persecution are most unlikely to declare their lbt identity when applying for asylum.
7)UK’s reluctance to recognise such persecution.
8)Effects of both the compulsory dispersal system and the holding of asylum seekers in detention centres, both of which isolate lbt women from support from local lbt organisation, which tends to be concentrated in urban centres, and government plans to educate separately children of asylum seekers.
Conference welcomes the work of organisations such as the National Assembly Against Racism, the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism, Stonewall Immigration Group, International Lesbian and Gay Association and Amnesty International on these issues.
Conference notes the urgent need to pursue these issues in the current debate on draft European Union Directives on the definition of a refugee and free movement in the EU.
Conference instructs the Women’s Committee to work with other parts of UNISON and appropriate outside organisations to push for:
i)The inclusion of the mistreatment of women on grounds of their gender, gender identity and sexual orientation in the UK’s ethical foreign policy.
ii)An inclusive definition of family in the United Kingdom, European Union and international law.
iii)Specific recognition of persecution on the basis of gender, sexual orientation or gender identity as grounds for asylum.
iv)The particular needs of lesbian, bisexual and transgender immigrants and asylum seekers to be addressed.