The Chairperson of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal has issued a new Guideline on Medico Legal Reports. This Guideline is intended to supplement the Act and Regulations and not to supplant them. In case of conflict, the provisions of the Act or relevant Regulation shall take precedence over this Guideline. This Guideline replaces the Chairperson’s Guideline No. 2017/6 on “Medico-Legal Reports” of 20 April 2017. This Guideline is issued pursuant to S.63(2) of the Act.
This Guideline applies to all appeals determined by the Tribunal and is primarily informed by the Istanbul Protocol, the UNHCR ‘Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status and Guidelines on International Protection’, the International Association of Refugee Law Judges’ ‘Guidelines on the Judicial Approach to Expert Medical Evidence’, the EUAA Judicial Analysis on ‘Evidence and credibility assessment in the context of the Common European Asylum System’, the EUAA Mapping Report on ‘Victims of Torture – Identification, support and examination of claims’, case-law, and international best practice.