Background information
on gender and asylum issues4

CGRS’s work is broken down into seven key areas, which build on each other and overlap for maximum impact and efficacy; these are:

• Providing training and technical support to attorneys, with the goals of improving the quality of legal representation and expanding the resources available to advocates; in particular, CGRS’s website provides extensive resources, such as unpublished decisions, that are otherwise not available from any other source;
• Tracking and monitoring gender asylum decisions nationwide to introduce unprecedented transparency and accountability into governmental asylum decision-making, and to inform policy advocacy;
• Engaging in appellate advocacy at the BIA and the federal courts in select cases which have the ability to impact evolving precedent;
• Formulating and implementing strategies to impact national policy; these strategies include the potential intervention of Congress in the form of legislation and the building of an expanded coalition to advocate on behalf of such legislation;
• Engaging in leadership development through outreach to students, and by providing a range of opportunities for their involvement in CGRS’s work;
• Working with the media to educate the public on the issue of gender asylum; and
• Participating in international conferences and mechanisms addressing issues germane to the protection of women asylum seekers.