Resolution number
17
Whereas
- The UNHCR and other NGOs who identify and refer Women at Risk cases to Canadian visa posts abroad have gathered adequate information on the referred cases;
- Numerous sources confirm that interviewing a woman for the details of her story of persecution can be an act of traumatization, and that further interviews are unnecessary and re-traumatizing;
- The November 1993 CCR Gender Consultations noted the importance of visa officers accepting referrals of Women at Risk cases using their discretion not to interview for the details of their persecution;
- In the restructuring of the Canadian visa posts visa officers have been advised to use their discretionary authority to decrease the number of interviews;
Therefore be it resolved
That the CCR request the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to direct visa officers to accept and process expeditiously the referrals of Women at Risk cases from the UNHCR and NGOs without an interview for the details of the persecution experience.
Subject
Working Group
Overseas Protection and Resettlement