Bio
Christel is a Wallscourt Fellow in Law at the University of the West of England (UWE). Her doctoral research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council at Newcastle University and examined judicial interpretation of international refugee law in the cases of persons fleeing armed conflicts from a gender perspective. She is a member of the Global Crime, Justice and Security Research Group at UWE and sits on the Editorial Board of the Refugee Law Initiative's Working Paper Series. Her research adopts comparative, feminist and inter-disciplinary approaches to law.
Christel was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2013 (Middle Temple) and practised at Lamb Building in asylum, immigration and human rights law. She was a founding Trustee of the Asylum Research Centre Foundation (2016-2020) and a member of the Women’s Project Advisory Committee at Asylum Aid (2012-2019). Christel was previously employed at Asylum Aid and Wilson Solicitors LLP.
Publications/recent projects
- ‘Gender and the Boundaries of International Refugee Law: Beyond the Category of ‘Gender-Related Asylum Claims’’, special issue on Gendered Borders: The Human Rights of Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers, 2019 Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 37(4), 379-397.
- ‘The Impact of Brexit on Gender and Asylum Law in the UK’ in Gender and Queer Perspectives on Brexit edited by Susan Millns, Nuno Ferreira and Moira Dustin (Palgrave Macmillan 2019).
- ‘The Role of the European Court of Human Rights in the Protection of Women Fleeing Gender-Based Violence in their Home Countries’, Feminists@Law, 2017, 7(2) (Multimedia).
- Case Notes and Comments: ‘MK (section 55 – Tribunal options) [2015] UKUT 223 (IAC) (15 April 2015)’, Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, 2015, 29(3), 326-328.
- ‘Women fleeing Armed Conflict: Seeking International Protection in the UK’ in Gender in Refugee Law: From the Margins to the Centre edited by Efrat Arbel, Catherine Dauvergne and Jenni Millbank (Routledge 2014).
- Gender related asylum claims in Europe: A comparative analysis of law, policies and practice focusing on women in nine EU Member States (European Parliament May 2012).
- I feel like as a woman I’m not welcome: A gender analysis of UK asylum law, policy and practice (Asylum Aid January 2012).
- The interpretation of the Convention ground of `membership of a Particular Social Group´ in the context of gender-related claims for asylum: A critical analysis of the Tribunal’s approach in the UK, Refugee Law Initiative, Working Paper No 3, January 2012.