Our Work to Defend the Rights of Asylum Seekers

The Women’s Refugee Commission has been visiting detention facilities and alternative detention programs around the world. We go to observe other countries’ detention models and to promote humane detention and asylum policies. Over the past year, we have visited detention centers and programs for unaccompanied children in Hungary, the United Kingdom and Belgium.

We also present our research and recommendations at key international meetings and high-level panels like the United Nations Human Rights Counsel and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission where we advocate on behalf of migrant and asylum seeking women and children. In these venues, we strongly recommend against the use of arbitrary detention and instead advocate for the use of alternatives to detention.

International Partnerships

In 2006, the Women’s Refugee Commission partnered with several organizations interested in human rights and asylum issues to form the International Detention Coalition (IDC).

Today, the IDC has grown to a network of more than 200 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), faith-based groups, academic institutions and individuals that provide legal, social and medical services, carry out research and reporting, and undertake advocacy and policy work on behalf of refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers. The network’s members, which represent more than 50 countries, have come together to share information and promote government policies that ensure fair treatment for asylum seekers.