Links

National Immigrant Justice Center

The National Immigrant Justice Center, a program of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, provides direct legal services to and advocates for low-income and impoverished immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The Center's Children's Project employs a Managing Attorney, Staff Attorney and Paralegal who recruit, train and mentor pro bono attorneys who represent unaccompanied children.
www.immigrantjustice.org

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.
www.unhcr.org

National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children

The National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children coordinates pro bono legal services for unaccompanied children released from detention in the United States.
www.refugees.org

American Bar Association Commission on Immigration

The Commission directs American Bar Association efforts to ensure fair and unbiased treatment, and full due process rights, for immigrants and refugees within the United States.
www.abanet.org/publicserv/immigration

Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies

Jacqueline Bhabha has released a report on the treatment of unaccompanied and separated immigrant and refugee children titled "Seeking Asylum Alone."
www.humanrights.harvard.edu/conference/
Seeking_Asylum_Alone_US_Report.pdf

asylumlaw.org

Free website run by an international consortium of agencies that help asylum seekers in Australia, Canada, the United States, and several countries in Europe.
www.asylumlaw.org

Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children

The Women's Commission is an expert resource and advocacy organization that monitors the care and protection of refugee women and children. It speaks out on issues of concern to refugee and displaced women, children and adolescents, who have a critical perspective in bringing about change but often do not have access to governments and policy makers.
www.womenscommission.org

National Immigration Forum

The National Immigration Forum advocates and builds support for public policies that welcome immigrants and refugees and are fair and supportive to newcomers in the United States.
www.immigrationforum.org

Vera Institute of Justice

The Vera Institute of Justice works closely with leaders in government and civil society to improve the services people rely on for safety and justice. The Vera Institute’s Unaccompanied Children Project is working to build organizational capacity to provide pro bono legal services in eight sites around the country.
www.vera.org

 

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Resources

ABA Standards for the Custody, Placement and Care

Legal Representation and Adjudication of Unaccompanied Alien Children in the United States
www.abanet.org/publicserv/immigration/home.html

Convention on the Rights of the Child

www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm

UNHCR Guidelines on Policies and Procedures in Dealing with Unaccompanied Children Seeking Asylum

www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/publ/opendoc.pdf?tbl=PUBL&id=3d4f91cf4
www.unhcr.org

UNHCR Guidelines on Formal Determination of the Best Interests of the Child

UNHCR Guidelines on Formal Determination of the Best Interests of the Child

1951 Geneva Refugee Convention

1951 Geneva Refugee Convention

 

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Books/Articles

Enrique's Journey; The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with his Mother, by Sonia Nazario

Enrique's Journey
La Travesia de Enrique

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: a Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, by Anne Fadiman

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

The Devil's Highway: A True Story, by Luis Alberto Urrea

The Devil's Highway : A True Story

By the Lake of Sleeping Children, by Luis Alberto Urrea

By the Lake of Sleeping Children

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible

The Dew Breaker, by Edwidge Danticat

The Dew Breaker

Small Island: A Novel, by Andrea Levy

Small Island: A Novel

When the Emperor Was Divine, by Julie Otsuka

When the Emperor Was Divine

The Hummingbird's Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea

The Hummingbird's Daughter

The Smugglers Due, by Alex Kotlowitz, New York Times Magazine

June 11, 2006

The Smugglers Due

Brother, I'm Dying, by Edwidge Danticat

Brother I'm Dying

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Namesake

The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai

The Inheritance of Loss

Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Interpreter of Maladies

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Movies

Born Into Brothels

Two documentary filmmakers chronicle their time in Sonagchi, Calcutta and the relationships they developed with children of prostitutes who work the city's notorious red light district.
Born into Brothels (2003)

Maria Full of Grace

A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately needed money for her family.
Maria Full of Grace (2003)

Hotel Rwanda

Don Cheadle stars in the true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsis refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda.
Hotel Rwanda (2005)

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