Civil Legal Rights & Protections Content Topic Results

This booklet is a guide on examining policies for working with teens who experience crime and abuse. It provides information about mandatory reporting, confidential communications, boundaries, and building partnerships with advocates and schools.

The federal courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) have classified female genital mutilation (FGM) as a form of persecution, which can be used as the basis for a successful asylum claim. However, recent developments in this area of law have created a split between the federal courts and the BIA over the treatment of applicants who have already endured FGM. Federal courts that have addressed FGM acknowledge past infliction of FGM as a basis for fear of persecution, while the BIA rejects this position. This article summarizes the legal controversy surrounding FGM and asylum.

This paper describes the requirements for U visas and emphasizes the need for practitioners to establish a good working relationship with law enforcement officers and help build trust between immigrant survivors of domestic violence and the law enforcement system. The article provides strategies for collaborating with local law enforcement.

This guide provides advocates with an overview of the increased risk of lethality when firearms are present in cases of domestic violence, a discussion of both federal and Illinois state laws related to firearm possession, and the role of the advocate in addressing firearms when working with survivors of domestic violence.

The toolkit is designed to provide advocates with an overview of VAWA's housing provisions and includes administrative guidance, recent legal developments, and sample advocacy materials.

This paper examines existing and potential constitutional challenges to various state residency laws, policy concerns and considerations of creating or expanding sex offender residency laws, and the political causes and ramifications of the residency laws and explains the need for a Supreme Court decision establishing the constitutional limit of residency laws

The Act bolsters federal efforts to combat both international and domestic trafficking in human beings. It expands pre-existing law enforcement authority, clarifies the reach of earlier prohibitions and outlaws obstructing anti-trafficking enforcement efforts, conspiring to traffic and the gain of any benefit from trafficking.

This manual provides guidance on gathering necessary documents for VAWA self petition.

This guide was designed to acquaint women considering a divorce with general information about divorce and the law. It provides women, regardless of the circumstances surrounding their divorce, with knowledge and resources to help ensure that their children, health, finances and safety are secure.

This tool is designed for judges to promote consideration of ways to maximize a child’s safety as they determine issues of custody and visitation.

This article provides practice pointers on how to prepare winning U visa applications, based on the authors experience working with Congress to create the U visa, with Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) to implement its interim relief process, and with practitioners in the field who have won interim relief for noncitizen victims of crime.

This document discusses the challenges faced by both domestic violence service providers in serving youth and challenges faced by teens seeking help. The document suggests re-evaluating program policies and structures to enhance services to youth.