Human Rights in Practice: Protecting Asylum-Seeking Women and Children Under Trump

November 20, 2017 • 12:30 PM • Law School 4047

Blaine Bookey, the Co-Legal Director at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, will give a talk on "Protecting Asylum-Seeking Women and Children Under Trump." This will be moderated by Aya Fujimura-Fanselow, Senior Legal Fellow and Supervising Attorney of Duke Law's International Human Rights Clinic. This is part of the Human Rights in Practice Series, which is organized by the International Human Rights Clinic and Center for International and Comparative Law. Co-sponsors include the Coalition against Gendered Violence, Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Human Rights Law Society, Immigrant and Refugee Project, International Law Society, and Women Law Students Association. Lunch will be provided. For more information, please contact Ali Prince at ali.prince@law.duke.edu .

Abstract

Bookey will discuss efforts nationally to protect women and children in an ever-increasingly hostile environment for asylum seekers in the United States. She will cover recent migration patterns of women and children and the conditions they are fleeing and the legal and procedural barriers to protection at each stage for those seeking safe haven. Finally, she will highlight the advocacy and litigation of CGRS and other partners that aims to ensure the United States lives up to its domestic and international obligations to the persecuted.

Biography

Blaine Bookey is currently Co-Legal Director at the UC Hastings-based Center for Gender and Refugee Studies where she has been since 2011. At the Center, she has her hand in all program areas including impact litigation, expert consultation and training, research and analysis, and international human rights. Before joining the Center, Blaine served as a federal appellate law clerk and a legal fellow at a public interest law firm in Port au Prince, Haiti. She also chairs the Board of the international women’s rights organization, MADRE. The American Constitution Society recognized Blaine for her work on behalf of marginalized communities with the 2016 David Carliner Public Interest Award. Blaine received her J.D. from Hastings and undergraduate degree in Social Policy and Gender Studies from Northwestern University.