Women's Refugee Commission ~ Detention and Asylum

Every year, thousands of asylum seekers are detained by the U.S. government until their asylum cases are decided—which can amount to days, weeks, months or even years. Many of those detained are women and children.

The Women’s Refugee Commission Detention and Asylum Program (DAP) is based in Washington, D.C. and works to ensure that vulnerable migrants in the United States are not detained unless absolutely necessary and that their basic rights are protected and respected.

DAP advocates for legislation and policy that would ensure the safety and well-being of migrant women, families and unaccompanied children. DAP works with the Obama administration, the U.S. Congress and the Department of Homeland Security, including its various agencies, to institutionalize these important safeguards.

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Jewish Women Fight For Equality At Jerusalem Western Wall

National Public Radio
July 30, 2010

Israeli law prohibits women from reading the Torah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, one of Judaism's most sacred spots. Anat Hoffman wants to change that. She's the chairwoman of Women of the Wall and a leading figure in the Reform movement in Israel. Earlier this month she was arrested for carrying the Torah at the wall. Hoffman tells guest host Rebecca Roberts about the incident and why she is so steadfastly working to upend the gender-based restrictions...

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Rape in the Camps: Lacking Security, Women Organize to Protect Themselves

DemocracyNow!
July 14, 2010

Something that gets lost in all the coverage of the Haiti earthquake is how people on the ground organize in the face of adversity. Rape and violence against women has become increasingly widespread in the tent camps across Haiti. While Haitian police and UN forces have done little, women on the ground are organizing to protect themselves. We spoke with Malia Villard Appolon, coordinator of KOFAVIV, the committee of women for survival...

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Miskito Women Fight on Nature's Side

By Thelma Mejía
Inter Press Service
June 18, 2010

Seven years ago, in the isolated Honduran region of Mosquitia, on the Caribbean coast, a group of women, mostly single mothers, elderly or widowed, overcame their fear and timidity -- thanks in part to a waste recycling project...

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"Women in Focus" at Film Festival

By Marcela Valente
Inter Press Service
May 12, 2010

The First International Women and Film Festival for Gender Equity drew enthusiastic audiences this month in the Argentine capital, where movies from nearly 40 countries were screened...

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Civil Rights Activist Dorothy Height Dies

by ALLISON KEYES
Morning Edition
National Public Radio
April 20, 2010

...Harvard professor Charles Ogletree called Height "an absolute genius."

"Everything that we do today is influenced by her sacrifices decades ago, her marches as a teenager against lynching, her buying a building right on Pennsylvania Avenue to in a sense to talk about the slave trade, and her commitment to open up doors for others is unparalleled," Ogletree said...

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Equality for Women - "The Core of the Problem is Care"

Daniela Estrada interviews SONIA MONTAÑO, head of ECLAC's gender unit
April 12, 2010
Inter Press Service

"Women help to reduce poverty and raise family incomes, but they pay too high a price for it, because in every country their working days are longer than men's," said Sonia Montaño, head of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean's (ECLAC) Division for Gender Affairs...

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