Developing the Substantive Best Interests of Child Migrants: A Call for Action

This Article attempts to accomplish two goals. First, it provides an overview of what is known and unknown about international child migrants. While this Conference will focus to some degree on child migrants in the United States, this Article shows how significant this phenomenon is around the world. Therefore, this Article provides data and points out the research gaps surrounding this issue. Equally significant is the lack of legal and policy tools available for governments to respond well and in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child ( CRC ) to the children themselves. First, informed by social science research, this Article briefly sets out the grounds for treating children as unique. This will lay the foundation for policy makers to think about child migrants as children first and above all. Second, this Article then looks at norms and practices that recognize the uniqueness of children and child migrants in particular. Finally, this Article suggests examples of how we-scholars, practitioners, policy makers, and adjudicators- might begin to develop better tools to address what sets child migrants apart

Arthur C. Helton 1949-2003

Through his advocacy, teaching and scholarship, Arthur Helton enabled some of the most vulnerable people on earth, as well as those who work to advance their rights, to ensure that governments strive to live up to their legal and moral obligations to protect and assist the displaced

An Early Black Cemetery on York Street

Many are familiar with William H. Tipton, a well-known local photographer who recorded iconic views of the town, battlefield, and monuments surrounding Gettysburg. What many people may not know is that Tipton built a house in the early 1900s right on top of Gettysburg’s first African-American cemetery. [excerpt

Protecting and Promoting the Human Right to Respect for Family Life: Treaty-Based Reform and Domestic Advocacy

This article examines the right to respect for family life in international law, focusing on its underlying principles and explicit protections. The article identifies these legal norms so that drafters of international treaties, specifically the International Migrants Bill of Rights, and United States legal practitioners representing immigrant children can incorporate the right to respect for family life into their drafting and advocacy, thereby protecting and promoting this critical human right. To encourage both high-level, international treaty-based reform and the grassroots domestic advocacy necessary to comprehensively protect and promote this right, this article provides specific ideas for incorporating the right to respect for family life into (1) the International Migrants Bill of Rights and (2) the United States immigration advocacy process. Section II identifies the principles that underlie the right to respect for family life, especially as it relates to children: (1) that family is the natural and fundamental unit of society and (2) that maintaining the family unit is in the best interests of the child. It also discusses the individuals to whom the right to respect for family life typically attaches. Section III discusses examples of how courts and U.N. expert bodies, including the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Committee, apply the right to respect for family life in child and family immigration contexts. Section IV analyzes the themes and reasoning in this case law. Section V discusses specific ideas for further integrating the right to respect for family life into the current version of the International Migrants Bill of Rights. Section VI identifies ways in which United States-based advocates can incorporate the right to respect for family life into their advocacy efforts. Section VII provides a brief conclusion

Asylum in Practice: Successes, Failures, and the Challenges Ahead

The Workshop on Refugee and Asylum Policy in Practice in Europe and North America was organized to facilitate a transatlantic dialogue aimed at understanding just how well these asylum systems are balancing the dual goals. The Workshop was convened by the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) of Georgetown University and the Center for the Study of Immigration, Integration and Citizenship Policies (CEPIC) of the Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, with the support of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. It was held on July 1-3, 1999, at Oxford University. The workshop examined key issues as to the workings of the U.S. and European asylum systems: decision making on claims, deterrence of abuse, independent review, return of rejected asylum seekers, scope of the refugee concept, social rights and employment, international cooperation, and data and evaluation. In this opening paper, we explain the significance of these issues and raise central questions about them

Magnetic energy production by turbulence in binary neutron star mergers

The simultaneous detection of electromagnetic and gravitational wave emission from merging neutron star binaries would aid greatly in their discovery and interpretation. By studying turbulent amplification of magnetic fields in local high-resolution simulations of neutron star merger conditions, we demonstrate that magnetar-level (~10^16) G fields are present throughout the merger duration. We find that the small-scale turbulent dynamo converts 60% of the randomized kinetic energy into magnetic fields on a merger time scale. Since turbulent magnetic energy dissipates through reconnection events which accelerate relativistic electrons, turbulence may facilitate the conversion of orbital kinetic energy into radiation. If 10^-4 of the ~ 10^53 erg of orbital kinetic available gets processed through reconnection, and creates radiation in the 15-150 keV band, then the fluence at 200 Mpc would be 10^-7 erg/cm^2, potentially rendering most merging neutron stars in the advanced LIGO and Virgo detection volumes detectable by Swift BAT