CGRS Releases New Practice Advisory: Gender-Based Fear-of-Return Claims for Women and Girls

The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies is excited to announce the release of our new practice advisory Gender-Based Fear-of-Return Claims for Women and Girls. This advisory  proceeds in three chapters:

• Chapter I: Substantive Claims for Protection, which discusses the evolution of gender-based violence being recognized as a basis for asylum and provides guidance on legal strategies for those protection claims under U.S. asylum law, including Attorney General Jefferson Sessions’ recent decision in Matter of A-B-. This chapter discusses gender-based claims in the context of female genital cutting (FGC), domestic violence, honor violence, gender-motivated violence by gangs or other organized criminal groups, sex trafficking, sexual violence and femicide, and persecution of women’s rights activists.
• Chapter II: Working with Survivors of Gender-Based Violence, which discusses the potential impact of trauma on the legal representation process in asylum and related cases and provides practice pointers for working with traumatized individuals.
• Chapter III: Compendium of Cases Involving Gender-Based Violence, which summarizes key gender-based asylum decisions from the U.S. courts of appeals, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and immigration court decisions found in CGRS’s case database.

To request a copy of this practice advisory, please fill out CGRS’s technical assistance request form here.