The Asylum and Human Rights Clinic works closely with other components of the University of Connecticut, experts from a variety of disciplines, and organizations in the community to enhance services for its clients, enrich students’ professional education, and further public understanding concerning human rights, immigration, and refugees.
In an exciting new joint project with the UConn School of Social Work, a social work student has become an integral part of the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic team.The social work intern works closely with Clinic law students to help meet the full range of clients’ legal and non-legal needs.Many asylum applicants need help to resolve housing problems, obtain access to medical care, adjust to a new culture and language, and find ways to support themselves while awaiting decisions in their cases.The Clinic is collaborating with the School of Social Work in other ways as well.For example, in the fall of 2010, a former client of the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic, together with her law student representative and Clinic faculty, spoke to an international social work class about the legal and social issues raised by asylum for victims of domestic violence.
As part of a robust continuing collaboration with the UConnHealthCenter, doctors in the School of Medicine’s psychiatry residency program have served as expert witnesses in the Clinic’s cases, conducting evaluations, preparing reports, and testifying at hearings.Dr. Julian Ford, a medical school faculty member, has regularly guest-taught Asylum Clinic classes on the mental health consequences of persecution and torture.The Asylum Clinic’s faculty and former Clinic clients have addressed medical school students and residents in programs about mental health and refugees.
The Asylum and Human Rights Clinic also has strong links with the main University of Connecticut campus in Storrs.Faculty and law students from the Asylum Clinic have guest-taught classes focusing on refugees and asylum in undergraduate courses in the history and educational psychology departments.Clinic law students regularly collaborate with political scientists, historians and scholars in other disciplines, from UConn and many other academic institutions, who generously donate their time and expertise to serve as expert witnesses about conditions in our clients’ home countries.
At the law school, the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic has organized or cosponsored a variety of community events on refugees and human rights, including bringing the play Tara’s Crossing, a provocative and moving theater piece about a transgendered asylum seeker, to the law school campus in April 2011.The production was followed by a panel discussion in which the playwright, asylum advocates and the real-life “Tara” spoke with the audience.
The Asylum Clinic’s outreach has extended well beyond UConn.Clinic law students and faculty have made presentations about the Clinic’s work to high school students at HartfordHigh School’s Law and GovernmentAcademy, the Connecticut chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association, the audience attending a play at the CharterOakCulturalCenter, and law students at the University of Brescia in Italy.
The Clinic cooperates closely with legal services agencies, the private bar, and organizations including Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, Catholic Charities, and the International Institute of Connecticut, in making and receiving case referrals, and seeking to expand the availability of legal services to immigrants and asylum seekers.
We are grateful for generous financial support from the Joshua Greenberg Memorial Fund, the William R. Davis Clinic Endowment Fund, the Wilde Family Foundation, Tavis Tindall, Meghana Shah, and the University of Connecticut Human Rights Initiative.Their contributions have sustained the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic's work and made its ongoing success possible.
