CEDAW/C/GC/32 Convention and other instruments for refugees with a view to promoting the rights of women asylum seekers and refugees. 42 They should collaborate with civil society and grass-roots non-governmental organizations supporting women asylum seekers and refugees. 42. Asylum procedures of States parties should ensure that women are able to lodge independent asylum applications and be heard separately, even if they are part of a family seeking asylum. States parties should accept that, when the principal claimant is recognized as a refugee, other members of the family should normally also be recognized as refugees (“derivative status”). Just as a child can derive refugee status from the recognition of a parent as a refugee, a parent should be granted derivative status based on the child’s refugee status. 43 It is essential that women who are recognized as refugees, whether in their own right or as derivative status holders, be issued with individual documentation in order to prove their status, be protected from refoulement and secure associated rights. 43. States parties should not deem that a woman asylum seeker lacks credibility for the mere reason of lack of documentation to support her asylum claim. Instead, they should take into account that women in many countries do not possess documentation in their respective countries of origin and seek to establish credibility by other means. 44. States parties should ensure that their border police and immigration officials are adequately trained, supervised and monitored for gender-sensitivity and non-discriminatory practices when dealing with women asylum seekers and refugees. They should ensure that they adopt and implement a gender-sensitive approach of a proper identification system for women asylum seekers and refugees that is not based on prejudices and stereotyped notions of women, including for victims of trafficking and/or sexual exploitation. 44 45. States parties should recognize that trafficking is part and parcel of genderrelated persecution, with the result that women and girls who are victims of trafficking or who fear becoming victims should be informed of and effectively enjoy the right of access to asylum procedures without discrimination or any preconditions. States parties are encouraged to classify victims of trafficking under the “social group” ground in the refugee definition in line with the UNHCR “Guidelines on international protection: the application of article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention and/or 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees to victims of trafficking and persons at risk of being trafficked” and are recommended to take measures so that women and girls are not returned to places where they risk being retrafficked. __________________ 42 43 44 14/21 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, art. 35; 1967 Protocol to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, art. II; Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (General Assembly resolution 428 (V), annex), para. 8. Executive Committee of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, conclusion No. 88 (L) on the protection of the refugee’s family, para. (b) (iii); UNHCR, “Guidelines on international protection: child asylum claims”, para. 9 (see footnote 22 above). Communication No. 15/2007, Zhen Zhen Zheng v. the Netherlands, views adopted by the Committee on 27 October 2008, para. 9.1 (a); see also Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 5; and general recommendation No. 25, para. 7. 14-64766