McLaughlin College at York University will host its Annual Public Policy Lecture, presented by Professor Deborah E. Anker, on Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
Anker, a clinical professor of law and the founder of the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC), will deliver the talk, “The Development of American Gender Asylum Law; Cross Border Collaboration Between U.S. and Canadian NGOs.”
Anker’s lecture will highlight the development of the body of the gender asylum law, or asylum claims of women subject to persecution over the past two decades and the influence of the international women’s human rights movement, which highlighted violence against women as a human rights issue. Anker will also discuss the urge for Canada to take leadership and reclaim its legacy after establishing a human rights framework for interpreting refugee law and issuing the first guidelines for adjudication of gender asylum claims in the 1990s.
Anker is one of the most widely known asylum practitioners, teachers and scholars in the U.S. and a pioneer in the development of clinical legal education in the immigration field, training students in direct representation of refugees and creating a foundation for clinics at law schools around the U.S. Author of the leading and annually updated treatise, Law of Asylum in the United States, Anker has co-drafted groundbreaking Gender Asylum Guidelines and amicus curiae briefs. Her historical work on U.S. ratification and implementation of the UN Refugee Convention in "The Forty Year Crisis: A Legislative History of the Refugee Act of 1980," is a classic that has shaped the interpretation of U.S. asylum law, especially in an internationalist direction.
Learn more about Anker and register for this event here.