Lecture | LIMS seminar
The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health of LGBTQIA+ child asylum-seekers
- Date
- Wednesday 2 April 2025
- Time
- Serie
- Leiden Interdisciplinary Migration Seminars 2024-2025
- Address
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Conference room (2.60)
Abstract
The health of LGBTQI+ children has been increasingly placed at the centre of public and media discourse all around the world as well as in the work of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Significantly, we see serious backlash on the rights of transgender children to access healthcare in many states such as the United States or the United Kingdom caused by the fearmongering campaigns of far-right governments. This attack on LGBTQI+ children’s health does not stop at the limitation of their effective access to healthcare and has also taken roots in the interdiction of LGBTQI+-friendly books in schools and a constant climate of anti-LGBTQI+ policies and attitudes. In this context, there is a considerable number of asylum applications on grounds for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression and Sexual Characteristics (SOGIESC) lodged every year around the world. Many then try to reach so-called ‘western’ states in hope of finding a more accepting society in which their basic human rights will not be challenged. Nevertheless and despite their obligations in this regard, the backsliding of LGBTQI+ rights, and notably their right to health, has not spared those states. This creates a situation in which LGBTQI+ children fleeing persecution on grounds of their SOGIESC find themselves in states where, while the persecutory harm is less likely to happen, their rights are not protected entirely either.
Moreover, the LGBTQI+ child asylum-seeker finds themselves in a situation of extreme vulnerability due to the compounded impact of simultaneously being a child, LGBTQI+ and an asylum seeker. Such vulnerability creates serious obstacles to the full realization of these children’s human rights. Notably, they may have a significantly harder time accessing (safe) healthcare services, particularly linked to sexual and gender health as well as mental health services.
This presentation considers the specific health needs of LGBTQI+ refugee children in order to establish a complete picture of the risks they face before, during and after migrating. Tissandier aims to develop policies and better practices based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to ensure that states effectively protect LGBTQI+ refugee children’s right to the highest attainable standard of health. This includes attention to pre-migration preventive measures, effective access and quality of care during the reception period as well as long-term continuation of care during integration in the receiving country or during transfer and return procedures.
LIMS
The Leiden Interdisciplinary Migration Seminars (LIMS) aim at fostering further discussion across disciplines on migration-related topics and creating an open dialogue between the speakers and the attendees. The seminars are a platform for those at Leiden University working on migration-related topics. LIMS is associated with Social Citizenship & Migration (SCM), one of nine interdisciplinary programmes launched by Leiden University in 2020.
Interested in attending? Registration is not necessary. For inquires, or to participate in future events, contact Dr. Andrew Shield.