Scottish Human Rights Law Group

 A citizen of Sierra Leone petitioned for judicial review of a decision refusing her leave to appeal against the dismissal by an adjudicator, of her appeal against the Home Secretary’s decision to refuse her application for asylum. The petitioner claimed that she had a well founded fear of persecution in Sierra Leone and that the removal of herself and her daughters from the United Kingdom would breach the UK’s obligations under the Human Rights Act having regard to the fact that her daughters were members of a particular social group which was at a real and substantial risk of persecution because of the practice of female genital mutilation in contravention of Article 3.

In dismissing the petition, the court held that that on no conceivable view was the practice of female genital mutilation capable of being a reason for persecution as a member of a group as the evidence showed that female genital mutilation was a lawful practice which was engaged in by almost all of Sierra Leone’s ethnic groups and there was in any event no finding that there would be a real risk of her daughters being subjected to female genital mutilation against her wishes and therefore no evidence to establish that the petitioner and her daughters’ human rights would be infringed if she were returned.

This case is available to view here