Please join the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies to examine the past, present, and future of asylum and refugee protection in the United States and beyond. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, a landmark treaty binding on the United States and implemented in our Refugee Act of 1980. Despite this firm international and domestic legal foundation, the asylum system in this country and many others is facing serious threats.
The event will feature opening remarks by CGRS Director and Professor Karen Musalo, followed by a panel discussion, and will explore the ongoing importance of the Convention in an era of mounting challenges. We will analyze the increasing divergence of U.S. law and policy from international standards and what it means for those escaping persecution, examine challenges for attorneys representing asylum applicants in a rapidly changing legal landscape, and learn more about the growing movement to center refugees and refugee-led organizations in crafting strategies to move forward.
A reception with light refreshments will follow.
Space is limited. RSVP today!
Speakers:
Karen Musalo, CGRS Director & Professor, UC Law SF
Professor Karen Musalo is the founding director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic at UC Law San Francisco. She is lead co-author of Refugee Law and Policy: An International and Comparative Approach (5th edition), as well as numerous reports, book chapters and articles.
Basma Alawee, Senior Advisor, Policy and Advocacy, Refugee Congress
Basma is a strategic and innovative leader in refugee protection and integration, with 16+ years of experience shaping solutions in the U.S. and globally. Trained as an engineer, she became an organizer not by choice but by circumstance — forced into displacement, she turned that journey into a movement, helping found the refugee rights movement in the U.S. and carrying it into policy advocacy at the state and federal level.
Felipe Navarro, Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy, CGRS
Felipe leads CGRS’s policy advocacy related to human mobility in the Americas, including climate displacement. He is a frequent speaker on these issues, presenting in academic, advocacy, and media settings. Felipe also spearheads CGRS's Spanish language public education efforts.
Hillary Ronen, Executive Director, La Raza Centro Legal
Hillary began her career at La Raza Centro Legal straight out of law school, ultimately serving as Co-Director of the Workers’ Rights Unit, where she provided direct legal representation, education, outreach, and policy advocacy to advance the employment rights of low-wage immigrant workers. She then spent fifteen years representing the Mission District and San Francisco’s immigrant community in local government, serving two terms on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2017 to 2024.
Moderated by Erin Meyer, Partner, Keker, Van Nest & Peters
Thank you to our sponsors!
Keker, Van Nest & Peters, Cooley, The Morrison Foerster Foundation, Cleary Gottlieb, Hogan Lovells, and the Wilson Sonsini Foundation