Lore Roels (she/her) is a junior PhD fellow within the Migration Law Research Group and the Gender & Violence Team in the International Centre for Reproductive Health at Ghent University. She is a member of the University’s interfaculty Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) and the Human Rights Centre (HRC). She holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws degree from Ghent University, as well as an LLM degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where she specialised in asylum law, law & gender and human rights. During her studies, Lore interned for two sexual and reproductive rights NGOs in Uganda (UYAHF and The Suubi Centre), the University Centre for Development Cooperation (UCOS), law firm Justis Lawyers Group, the Belgian Council for Alien Law Litigation and Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen.
Lore’s doctoral research echoes the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR, 2013) concern that asylum authorities might base credibility assessments on stereotypical and erroneous perceptions of gender. Her research aims to analyse the gender-(in)sensitivities in credibility assessments of SGBV asylum applications in the European asylum procedure (going beyond only ‘rape’ as a type of SGBV). Her research will collect data from 3 complementary resources: existing literature, asylum authorities (through case law analysis and KAP (Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices) surveys) and asylum seekers themselves (through qualitative interviews). This triangulation of input will expand the understanding of the asylum procedure and its gendered legal challenges and will contribute to the further theorization of asylum-specific gender studies.
Doctoral researcher (Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) fellowship) at Ghent University (2021 – ongoing)
University Degrees
• LLM in Human Rights (LSE (London School of Economics & Political Science), 2020-2021) – thesis: The application of rape mythology to credibility assessments in the European Court of Human Rights’ asylum case law related to sexual or gender-based persecution
• Master of Laws (Ghent University, 2018-2020) – thesis: Social media and smartphone screenings against abuse in the Belgian asylum procedure: an end that does not justify the means
• Bachelor of Laws (Ghent University, 2015-2018) – thesis: The case of Babiarz v. Poland and the right to divorce: a missed opportunity for the European Court of Human Rights?
Roels, L., Socialemedia- en smartphonescreenings tegen misbruik in Belgische verzoekprocedures om internationale bescherming: een doel dat de middelen niet wettigt, Tijdschrift voor Vreemdelingenrecht, 2020/4, p. 329-344.
