Kirby role revealed
The lawyer of one of two men who’s UK Supreme Court case determined that gay and lesbian asylum seekers could not be told to go home and hide their sexuality says it was an Australian High Court ruling that paved the way for the decision.
S. Chelvan, the lawyer for a Cameroonian man code named HT during the case, told Southern Star a ruling by Australian Supreme Court Justices, including Michael Kirby, in 2003 had been misinterpreted by a court of appeal which had ruled the men could live safely in their home countries if they were prepared to hide their sexual orientation.
“Justice Kirby’s reasoning in the 2003 appeal of two Bangladeshi gay men had been misinterpreted by the England and Wales Court of Appeal by imposing a test on whether discretion by a gay, lesbian or bisexual person on return to their country of origin could be “reasonably tolerable,” Chelvan said.
“The Supreme Court decision makes it clear that a lesbian, gay or bisexual person has the same right to live openly and freely as a straight person — to be able to be as free to express sexual identity and form relationships.”
Chelvan said that if a same-sex attracted person could not live as freely and openly as a heterosexual person in their country due to well founded fears of persecution, or were discrete because of such a fear, then the UK will now recognise them as genuine refugees.
The UK Supreme Court handed down the decision in July.
