Gender in European Union Asylum Law: The Istanbul Convention as a Game Changer?

The European Union (EU) has historically been a proactive player in advancing equality between women and men, and fighting gender-based discrimination. The past two decades have also seen the EU becoming a major actor in asylum law, with several EU secondary law instruments and a large amount of case law in EU Member States relating to the application of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Yet, these two areas of EU legislation – gender equality and asylum – have yet to become consistently connected. Similarly, judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union addressing gender-related elements of asylum cases are scarce. Could the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) help bridge the gap? The Istanbul Convention identifies gender-based violence as an extreme form of discrimination and contains a whole chapter dedicated to women in the context of migration. This article sheds light on the yet-to-be-realized potential of the Istanbul Convention to amplify the protective power of the Refugee Convention in the EU. While at present neither the Common European Asylum System, nor its new iteration in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, fully meets the standards of the Istanbul Convention, it may be expected that the EU’s accession to the treaty will further encourage a gender-sensitive approach in EU asylum law. The Istanbul Convention may well be a game changer for the protection of female asylum seekers, and possibly also for asylum seekers with other gender identities.