CEDAW/C/73/D/86/2015
Background
1.1 The author of the communication is R.S.A.A., a Palestinian refugee from the
Syrian Arab Republic, holding a Jordanian passport, born in 1970. The
communication is submitted on behalf of the author and her daughters, S.A. and H.A.,
born in 1998 and 2005, respectively. The author claims that their deportation from
Denmark to Jordan would violate their rights under articles 1 and 2 (d), read in
conjunction with article 2 (e) and (f), and article 15 (4) of the Convention. The
Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto entered into force for Denmark in 1983
and 2000, respectively. The author is represented by counsel, Marie Louise
Frederiksen.
1.2 The author’s application for asylum was rejected by the Danish Immigration
Service on 11 October 2013. The Refugee Appeals Board dismissed the appeal against
that decision on 21 January 2014. By letter of 9 July 2014, the author requested the
Board to reopen the asylum proceedings. On 14 April 2015, the Board r efused to do
so. On 23 April, the Danish authorities informed the author that her deportation to
Jordan would take place within a few weeks.
1.3 On 30 April, the Committee, acting through its Working Group on
Communications under the Optional Protocol, requested the State party to refrain
from deporting the author and her children to Jordan pending the consideration of her
case by the Committee, pursuant to article 5 (1) of the Optional Protocol and rule 63
of the Committee’s rules of procedure. On 7 May, the Refugee Appeals Board
suspended the time limit for the departure of the author and her children from
Denmark until further notice, in accordance with the Committee ’s request.
1.4 On 4 February 2016 and 15 December 2016, the Committee denied the State
party’s requests to lift the interim measures.
Facts as submitted by the author
2.1 The author is a stateless Palestinian, who was born and raised in Yarmouk
refugee camp of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East, in Damascus. She has held a Jordanian passport since her marriage
to a Jordanian national in 1990. Following her marriage, she resided in the Syrian
Arab Republic and Jordan. The author has five children, three of whom are still
residing in Zarqa’, Jordan. The author’s parents and siblings were granted refugee
status in Denmark in 1994.
2.2 The author and her daughters arrived in Denmark in November 2012. The author
left Jordan because she and her daughters were subjected to threats and abuse from
her husband and his family, who belong to a powerful clan in Jordan. The abuse
escalated when the author opposed the forced marriage of her 20 -year-old daughter
to a much older man. The author raised objections to the marriage and, as a result,
she was beaten up and tortured by her husband.
2.3 Subsequently, at the beginning of August 2012, an older man asked to marry the
couple’s middle daughter, who was 15 1 years old at the time. The man was about 35
years old. The author pretended to consent to the marriage but decided to flee to
Denmark with her daughters, lying to her husband that they were only traveling there
to visit with the author’s purportedly sick mother.
2.4 The author needed a declaration of consent, signed by her husband and
registered with the police in Zarqa’, in order to travel outside of Jordan without him.
The author managed to convince her spouse of the necessity of her visit to Denmark
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As submitted by the author. Refers to S.A., who was 14 years old in August 201 2.
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