CEDAW/C/69/D/80/2015
named A., at the age of 10 years and that she currently had a girlfriend in Denmark
named I.N.;
(c) At the hearing before the Board on 5 December 2014, she stated that she
had realized that she was a lesbian in 2007, when she had been with a woma n named
J., but also that she had known that she was a lesbian before her marriage. She had
then stated that her relationship with I., her current girlfriend, had started in
September or October 2012. When informed that she had not mentioned that
relationship previously during the asylum proceedings, the author responded that she
had not been asked that question.
4.10 The Board also determined that the author was unable to give a detailed account
of the operation of the bar that she, by her own account, had owned and run for four
years, and that it appeared peculiar that she was able to operate the bar for that period
without experiencing any problems with customers or the authorities, despite her
statement that some customers had been openly lesbian.
4.11 The Board further emphasized that the author had also been unable to provide
details of the planning and financing of her escape to Rwanda prior to her arrival in
Denmark, including the names of the women with whom she had escaped to and
stayed in Rwanda. The Board considered it unlikely that the home of the author ’s
mother, which was located between 80 and 100 km from the bar, had been searched
because of the incident at the bar on 6 November 2011.
4.12 Accordingly, the Board determined that the author had failed to demonstrate the
probability, if she were returned to her country of origin, of her being at a specific
and individual risk of persecution, under section 7 (1) of the Aliens Act, or of inhuman
treatment or other punishment, under section 7 (2) of the Act. Against that
background, the Board upheld the decision of 28 May 2014 of the Immigration
Service to refuse asylum to the author. The State party fully endorses the Board ’s
conclusion that the author’s statements on crucial elements of her grounds for asylum
are inconsistent, elaborative and sketchy and that parts of her statements appear
unlikely. The State party therefore submits that it does not accept the author ’s grounds
for seeking asylum as a fact, nor that she is a lesbian. As to the author ’s claim that
she is fleeing repression not only as a lesbian but also as a woman, the State party is
of the view that the general situation of women in Uganda cannot justify the granting
of asylum.
4.13 With respect to the author’s activities in Denmark and her argument that she has
been active in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community since arriving in
the country, the State party reaffirms that neither the Board nor the Government
accepts that the author is in reality a lesbian or that she e xperienced conflicts with the
authorities or private individuals in Uganda owing to her sexuality before her
departure in 2012. Moreover, it cannot be accepted that the author will be at risk of
persecution or abuse in Uganda solely as a result of her part icipation in the abovementioned activities, the likes of which she failed to mention when interviewed by
the Immigration Service on 7 January 2013.
4.14 With respect to the author’s allegation that she was not allowed to call a witness
at the Board hearing of 5 December 2014, the State party indicates that the author has
failed to substantiate how that refusal resulted in any breach of the Convention in her
case. The State party further recalls that, under section 54 (1) of the Aliens Act, the
Board has the power to decide on the examination of asylum seekers and witnesses
and on the production of other evidence. According to the Board ’s jurisprudence,
asylum seekers are typically allowed to call witnesses only in cases in which they are
directly linked to the grounds for seeking asylum. Witnesses are thus not normally
allowed to give evidence solely with regard to the asylum seeker ’s general credibility.
In the present case, the author wished to call her alleged girlfriend to testify with
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