Center for Gender & Refugee Studies - California

The Center for Gender and Refugee Studies - California (CGRS-CA) works to defend women, children, and LGBT asylum seekers fleeing persecution in their home countries by improving the quality of legal representation available to them. By providing free expert consultation, resources, and training to attorneys and organizations in California, CGRS-CA helps obtain the best possible outcomes for individual asylum seekers. CGRS-CA also undertakes strategic impact litigation on behalf of refugees, engages in policy development, research, and in-country fact-finding, and uses international human rights instruments to address the root causes of persecution.

CGRS-CA is the California-focused arm of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies based at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. Following her groundbreaking legal victory in Matter of Kasinga, CGRS Director and Professor Karen Musalo founded CGRS to meet the needs of asylum seekers fleeing gender-based violence. Fauziya Kassindja, a young woman from Togo, fled to the United States to escape female genital cutting and a forced polygamous marriage to a much older man. Building on the momentum from the Kasinga decision—the first precedent decision to recognize gender-based persecution as deserving of asylum—CGRS strategically combined the use of impact litigation with media attention, national grassroots advocacy, and technical assistance and training for attorneys to successfully expand protections available to refugee women and other vulnerable populations.

Recent developments have required us to accelerate and expand our core work of pioneering gender asylum law. Central American women and children are literally running for their lives, arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in numbers that rival the 2014 “surge.” But instead of providing protection, the U.S. government insists on treating these women and children fleeing violence as criminals rather than refugees. In a misguided effort to deter refugees from coming to the United States, the Administration has terrorized and re-traumatized Central American families through the use of raids and the abhorrent practice of detaining immigrant mothers and children in locked jail-like facilities, far from established legal service providers. We are part of a national coalition pushing for an end to family detention and challenging other anti-refugee draconian policies.

CGRS-CA is proud to train and support lawyers in California representing brave mothers who risk everything to find safety and protection in the U.S. Please join us in working toward a world where no one is subject to persecution because of his or her gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or membership in a family or other social group. Support CGRS-CA’s efforts to ensure that women, children, and LGBT asylum seekers have the best chance at gaining protection, and make a donation in honor of your mother or loved one today.

Give by Friday, May 5th, and we will send an electronic Mother’s Day card on your behalf to your mother or loved one! 

The entire CGRS-CA staff thanks you for your support!