Litigation is ongoing, and this brief will not be updated to reflect future events and updates. The facts and events of this brief are current, as of 8:50 AM EDT on April 2, 2025. On January 20, 2025, the Administration put an indefinite pause on refugee admissions and processing through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program […]
Category: Policy and Advocacy
When Accounting for War Crimes, Include Refugee Voices
Lessons from Colombia to Reckon with the Syrian Civil War What Came Before In March of 2011, the Syrian Civil War began. Bashar al-Assad’s government responded to anti-regime protests with a campaign of cruelty, razing the city of Deraa and torturing dissidents. Defectors from Assad’s forces mounted the Free Syrian Army (FSA) while jihadist […]
Shifts in Gender-Related Refugee Protection Eligibility Guidelines
Refugee and asylum eligibility is largely determined using the “refugee” definition from the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol (“Refugee Convention”), which defines a refugee as a person who, “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country […]
Children in Migration Need Protection, Not Barriers
The international community once held a strong consensus that children are inherently entitled to protection, with the belief that their needs and rights should be prioritized above all else. No matter their country of origin, their religion, their identity, their legal or migratory status—they are children, first and foremost. This principle was enshrined in various […]
Refugee Laws Typically Work Against Women—These Examples Promise a Shift
Of the over 120 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, 43.4 million people are refugees and 6.9 million people are asylum seekers. Women make up around half of each population, yet they face refugee and asylum processes that are not operating with a gender-neutral approach. Refugee and asylum eligibility is largely determined using the “refugee” definition […]
Lessons from Libya for Addressing Syrian Displacement
The First Libyan Civil War and the Syrian Civil War were part of the broader Arab Spring uprisings that began in late 2010 and spread across the Middle East and North Africa. Both civil wars began in 2011 and emerged from a wave of protests demanding democratic reforms and an end to authoritarian regimes. In […]
Three Years of War in Ukraine: We Must Support Women-Centered Refugee Solutions
Today, we memorialize three years of full-scale war in Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, Russian forces launched a military invasion into Ukraine, sparking one of the largest displacement crises in modern history. People in Crimea and front-line regions have endured years of emergency displacement. People throughout Ukraine have shown resilience in the face of indiscriminate […]
Ukrainian Refugees Still Need Protection Abroad
Over 6.9 million people have fled the War in Ukraine. The United States has consistently provided support for Ukrainian military efforts, but it hosts less than 10 percent of Ukrainians fleeing the war with Russia. After three years of war, support for Ukrainian refugees abroad is dwindling, and many Ukrainians are left uncertain as to […]
‘Justice for Our Daughters’: Murder and Disappearance of Women in Mexico
In 1993, the women of Ciudad Juárez started to disappear. Alma Chavira Farel was the first: at fourteen years old, she was found strangled to death. From there, the count of the missing and the dead rose. Bones surfaced in the desert expanse surrounding the city, fragments handed to mothers who wondered what happened to […]
“Step Up the Pace” International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation
Each year on February 6, the international community marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on which it reiterates its commitment to eliminate FGM by 2030 and create a world where women and girls have their rights to health, education, and safety fulfilled. This year the theme, Step up the […]
