Intersectionality, Forced Migration, and the Jus-generation of the Right to Flee
This chapter critiques the piecemeal approach of the Strasbourg Court to the question of access to asylum, showing how intersectionality theory can facilitate a principled shift towards an analysis that captures the complexity of refugees’ position and recovers the indivisibility of human rights. The theory calls for the multi-dimensional appreciation of human experience in a way that encompasses the whole breadth of lived realities. A similar approach is advocated herein to the construal of the law so that intersectional thinking guides not only the appraisal of factual constellations, but also the interpretation of applicable norms. Only a whole-of-person approach matched by a whole-of-legal-system interpretation can realise substantive justice in practice. This requires a holistic understanding that penetrates the full depth of individual situations and incorporates all the relevant legal provisions in cumulative fashion, acknowledging the jus-generative effects of their interaction, overcoming the limitations of current constructions of rights as disconnected from each other and from the circumstances to which they apply. In the asylum-seeking context, the outcome of the intersection between the right to leave and the right to protection against ill-treatment is the composite ‘right to leave to escape ill-treatment’ or ‘right to flee’, based on the interactive combination of existing entitlements (without the need for new law). The purchase of this method is wider than this chapter has scope to demonstrate. It can be applied to the ECHR as a whole, promoting internal consistency and supporting its development as a constitutional instrument of European public order.