Valgerður Guðmundsdóttir successfully defended her doctoral thesis

On December 16 2024 Valgerður Guðmundsdóttir, an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Akureyri, successfully defended her doctoral thesis titled The Nordic Concept of Gender Equality and „the Other“: The Problems and Particularities of Gender Mainstreaming in Asylum Decision-making at McGill University in Canada.

Her supervisor was Professor Colleen Sheppard. Her doctoral committee also consisted of Professor François Crépeau from McGill University and Professor Payam Akhavan from the University of Toronto. Her doctoral defence committee also consisted of Professor Alana Klein and Professor Evan Fox-Decent both at McGill University as well as Professor Catherine Dauvergne from the University of British Columbia who served as the external examiner. Valgerður‘s research was funded by both McGill University as well as the Icelandic Gender Equality Fund.

About the thesis

In her thesis she conducts an empirical review on selected decisions concerning female applicants for asylum taken at the Icelandic Directorate of Immigration. The decisions are subjected to a content analysis in order to analyse whether the applicant’s gender appeared to have been taken into consideration in the decision-making process. In the thesis she argues that the current gender equality legislation in Iceland includes an obligation on the Icelandic authorities to incorporate gender mainstreaming into the administrative decision-making process. The thesis then subsequently analyses if, and how, that might affect the authorities decision-making process in these cases.

The results show that the applicant’s gender is not systematically assessed in these decisions, both when it comes to the situation in their countries of origin as well as in the decision-making process itself. The situation in the Nordic countries and Canada is also discussed for a comparative analysis. However, there is one aspect that they all have in common and that is the lack of available information on these issues. Finally, the thesis includes suggestions for reform on these issues, including gender equality and refugee rights, in order to fulfil Iceland’s human rights obligations.

THE UNIVERSITY WOULD LIKE TO CONGRATULATE DR. VALGERÐUR GUÐMUNDSDÓTTIR ON HER DOCTORAL DEGREE!