Tahirih Hosts Congressional Briefing and Releases Report on Refugee Women and Girls in the US Asylum System
On September 30, 2009, the Tahirih Justice Center held a Congressional Briefing to call attention to challenges faced by women and girls fleeing persecution and seeking protection in the United States. Tahirih’s Director of Public Policy presented a new report that Tahirih has prepared, and was joined on the speakers’ panel by colleagues from our co-conveners for the Briefing, the Women’s Refugee Commission and Human Rights First. A former Tahirih client, award-winning actor and human rights activist Sam Waterston, and Congressman Jim Moran, who represents Tahirih’s district and has been a long-standing Tahirih supporter, also gave remarks.
As highlighted in the Washington Post (“Clearer Rules Urged For Asylum Seekers”), the briefing featured the presentation of Tahirih’s report, “Precarious Protection: How Unsettled Policy and Current Laws Harm Women and Girls Fleeing Persecution.”
The report takes a critical look at how the lack of clarity and coherence in the field of gender-based asylum law, together with the harsh implications of current immigration laws and policies of general application to all asylum seekers (including the one-year filing deadline, the expedited removal process, and restrictive detention policies with limited access to parole), can prevent women and girls fleeing persecution from finding the protection they need and deserve. Read the full report (PDF).
