CGRS Publications

CGRS engages in scholarly research and writing on cutting edge issues regarding refugee and human rights. Reports and articles produced by CGRS can be found on this page. To view CGRS-authored briefs, we invite you to visit our litigation pages. To request other CGRS materials to support your asylum case, including practice advisories, country conditions reports, sample briefs, and expert declarations, please fill out this case intake form.

Gender Asylum

• Kate Jastram and Sayoni Maitra, Matter of A-B- One Year Later: Winning Back Gender-Based Asylum Through Litigation and Legislation, 18 Santa Clara J. Int'l L. 48 (2020).

• Karen Musalo, The Struggle for Equality: Women's Rights, Human Rights, and Asylum Protection, 48 Sw. L. Rev. 531 (2019).

• Blaine Bookey, Gender-based Asylum Post-Matter of A-R-C-G-: Evolving Standards of the Law, 1 Southwestern J. Int’l L. 22 (2016).

• Karen Musalo, Personal Violence, Public Matter: Evolving Standards in Gender-Based Asylum Law, Harvard international Review (2014)

• Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, Review of Gender, Child, and LGBTI Asylum  Guidelines and Case Law in Foreign Jurisdiction: A resource for U.S. Attorneys, (May, 2014)

• Karen Musalo, A Tale of Two Women: The Claims for Asylum of Fauziya Kassindja, who Fled FGC, and Rody Alvarado, a Survivor of Partner (Domestic) Violence, Gender in Refugee Law: From the Margins to the Centre, ed. Efrat Abel, Catherine Dauvergne, and Jenni Millbank, Research in Asylum, Migration and Refugee Law (London and New York: Routledge, 2014)

• Blaine Bookey, Domestic Violence as a Basis for Asylum: An Analysis of 206 Case Outcomes in the United States from 1994 to 2012, 24 Hastings Women's L.J. 107 (2013)

• Karen Musalo, A Short History of Gender Asylum in the United States: Resistance and Ambivalence May Very Slowly Be Inching Towards Recognition of Women’s Claims, Refugee Survey Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2010)

• Kim Thuy Seelinger, Forced Marriage and Asylum: Perceiving the Invisible Harm, Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Vol. 42, No 1 (2010)

• Lisa Frydman and Kim Thuy Seelinger, Kasinga’s Protection Undermined? Recent Developments in Female Genital Cutting Jurisprudence, 18 Bender’s Immigration Bulletin 1073 (2008)
• Karen Musalo, Protecting Victims of Gendered Persecution: Fear of Floodgates or Call to (Principled) Action?, 14 Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 119 (2007)
• Stephen Knight, Asylum from Trafficking: A Failure of Protection, 07-07 Immigr. Briefings (2007)
• Karen Musalo and Stephen Knight, Asylum for Victims of Gender Violence: An Overview of the Law, and an Analysis of 45 Unpublished Decisions, 03-12 Immigr. Briefings 1 (2003)

Children's Asylum

• Lisa Frydman and Blaine Bookey, "Applying the refugee definition to child-specific forms of persecution," in Research Handbook on Child Migration (2018)
• CGRS, Universidad Nacional De Lanus, et al., Childhood and Migration in Central and North America: Causes, Policies, Practices and Challenges (2015)
• CGRS, KIND, A Treacherous Journey: Child Migrants Navigating the U.S. Immigration System (2014)

Fear-of-Gang and Family-Based Claims

• Christine Natoli, Families Fleeing: Family Membership as a Basis for Asylum, 5 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law & Public Affairs (2020)
• Lisa Frydman and Neha Desai, Beacon of Hope or Failure of Protection? U.S. Treatment of Asylum Claims Based on Persecution by Organized Gangs, 12–10 Immigr. Briefings (2012)

Other Asylum

• Karen Musalo, "The Legal and Moral Responsibility to Protect," Fordham International Law Journal, 2022
• Karen Musalo, "Evolution of Refugee and Asylum Law in the United States," in Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Interdisciplinary and Comparative Perspectives (2019)
• Karen Musalo and Eunice Lee, Seeking a Rational Approach to a Regional Refugee Crisis: Lessons from the Summer 2014 “Surge” of Central American Women and Children at the US-Mexico Border, 5 Journal on Migration and Human Security 1 (2017)
• Karen Musalo and Marcelle Rice, The Implementation of the One-Year Bar to Asylum, 31 Hastings Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 693 (2008)

Medical and Mental Health Issues

• Neela O. Chakravartula, Christine Lin, Stuart L. Lustig, Katherine McKenzie, Working with Medical and Mental Health Experts in Asylum and Related Fear-of-Return Claims, 24-7 Bender's Immigr. Bull. 01 (2019)
• Karen Musalo, Susan M. Meffert, Shonali Shome, and Thomas C. Neylan, Health Impact of Human Rights Testimony: Harming the Most Vulnerable?, 1 MJ Glob. Health 1 (2018).
• Karen Musalo, Susan M. Meffert, and Akra Osman Abdo, The Role of Mental Health Professionals in Political Asylum Processing, 38 Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry & the Law 479 (2010).

Root Causes and Regional Migration Issues

El Salvador

• Karen Musalo, El Salvador: Root Causes and Just Asylum Policy Responses, 18 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 178 (Summer 2021)
• Karen Musalo, El Salvador--A Peace Worse Than War: Violence, Gender and a Failed Legal Response, 30 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 3 (2018)  

Guatemala

• Hector Ruiz, No Justice for Guatemalan Women: An Update Twenty Years After Guatemala's First Violence Against Women Law, 29 Hastings Women's L.J. 101 (2018) 
• Karen Musalo and Blaine Bookey, Crimes Without Punishment: An Update on Violence Against Women and Impunity in Guatemala, 10 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 265 (2013)
• Karen Musalo et al., Crimes Without Punishment: Violence Against Women in Guatemala, 21 Hastings Women’s L.J. 161 (2010)
• Katherine Ruhl, Guatemala’s Femicides and the Ongoing Struggle for Women’s Human Rights: Update to CGRS’s 2005 Report Getting Away with Murder, 18 Hastings Women’s L.J. 199 (2006)
• Angélica Chàzaro and Jennifer Casey, Getting Away with Murder: Guatemala’s Failure to Protect Women and Rodi Alvarado’s Quest for Safety, Hastings Women’s L.J. 141 (2005)

Mexico

• A Journey of Hope: Haitian Women’s Migration to Tapachula, Mexico, CGRS, IMUMI, Haitian Bridge Alliance (Jan. 2021).

Haiti

• CGRS et al., Struggling to Survive: Sexual Exploitation of Displaced Women and Girls in Port au Prince, Haiti (2012) (English)
• CGRS et al., Struggling to Survive: Sexual Exploitation of Displaced Women and Girls in Port au Prince, Haiti (2012) (French)
• TrustLaw et al., Achieving Justice for Victims of Rape and Advancing Women’s Rights: A Comparative Study of Legal Reform: Haiti Edition with Recommendations on the Haiti Draft Law on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (CGRS ed.) (2012) (English)
• TrustLaw et al., Achieving Justice for Victims of Rape and Advancing Women’s Rights: A Comparative Study of Legal Reform: Haiti Edition with Recommendations on the Haiti Draft Law on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (CGRS ed.) (2012) (French)
• Blaine Bookey, Enforcing the Right to be Free from Sexual Violence and the Role of Lawyers in Post-Earthquake Haiti, 14 CUNY L. Rev. 101 (2011)

Central Asia

• CGRS, Breaking Barriers: Challenges to Implementing Laws on Violence Against Women in Afghanistan and Tajikistan with special consideration of displaced women (2016)