Beyond Gender: State Failure to Protect Domestic Violence Victims as a Basis for Granting Refugee Status

This brief essay addresses the debate over whether victims of domestic violence should be able to claim refugee status. The author notes that the greatest challenge in advancing this type of refugee claim is that domestic violence is private in nature and argues that refugee advocates have failed to clearly articulate the role of the state within domestic violence. The essay examines the particular elements of the refugee definition which are of greatest issue for those seeking refugee status due to domestic violence. In conclusion the author states that there is a need to shift the focus in cases of domestic violence towards the role of the state which will constitute a move beyond simply examining the gender dimensions of the problem. [Descriptors: Migration - Refugees and Immigration, Violence Against Women, International]