Rebel Justice
What is justice? Who does it serve? Why should you care?
When we think about justice, we think about it as an abstract, something that happens to someone else, somewhere else. But justice and the law regulate every aspect of our interactions with each other, with organisations, and with the government.
We never think about it until it impacts our lives, or that of someone close.
Our guests are women with lived experience of the justice system whether as victims or women who have committed crimes; or people at the forefront of civic action who put their lives on the line to demand a better world..
We ask them to share their insight into how we might repair a broken and harmful system, with humanity and dignity.
We also speak with people who are in the heart of the justice system creating important change; climate activists, judges, barristers, human rights campaigners, mental health advocates, artists and healers.
Rebel Justice
Interview with Dr S Chelvan - The Refugee Series (Episode 3)
In this third episode of our refugee series, host Trystan speaks with Dr S Chelvan, an activist human rights lawyer and head of immigration and law at 33 Bedford Row, to learn about the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ refugees when claiming asylum. When Dr Chelvan started, there was no model at all for processing LGBTQ+ asylum applications, which led to some appalling situations. Perhaps most notoriously, the Home Office could at times engage in an hugely inappropriate and invasive line of questioning, expecting someone claiming asylum to somehow 'prove' they were LGBTQ+. Such refugees were often met with disbelief, with enormous pressure to adhere to a usually straight, cis officer's expectations of what an LGBTQ+ person was like in order to gain the right to remain. Entering this context, Dr Chelvan has achieved worldwide recognition for his work supporting the asylum claims of LGBTQ+ people, as well as having created the Difference, Stigma, Shame and Harm (or DSSH) model, a humane and positive tool to process LGBTQ+ asylum claims, now used around the world, allowing countless people to find refuge in a new country.
You can follow Dr Chelvan on twitter @S_Chelvan
- as well as on Mastodon, @S_Chelvan@mas.to
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