The UN Sustainable Development Goal #16 calls for states to provide ‘access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’. It is commonly assumed that “developed” nations have attained these goals. However, this chapter draws on the author’s research with sexually diverse refugees, alongside a conceptualisation of ‘Administrative Violence’, to argue that UK institutions—such as the Home Office—continue to operate in ways which undermine core targets and indicators associated with this goal. For example, instances of rule-breaking, dubbed ‘Administrative Lawlessness’ by Juss, push against target 16.3, which calls on states to ‘promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all’. Similarly, the largely behind-the-scenes, decision-making practices of the Home Office challenge target 16.6, which calls for states to ‘develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels’. Thus, through the deployment of the concepts of Administrative Violence and Administrative Lawlessness, and an analysis of eight semi-structured interviews with sexually diverse refugees (undertaken 2018-2020), the chapter will argue that the UK continues to fall short of Sustainable Development Goal #16 in fundamental ways. In so doing, the chapter will mitigate against the complacency of “developed” nations in upholding international norms.
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Powell, Alex
School of Law
Year of publication: [not yet published]Date of RADAR deposit: 2023-01-06
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