30th Anniversary of U.S. Refugee Act

Human Rights First and Georgetown Law hosted a symposium on "Renewing U.S. Commitment to Refugee Protection: The 30th Anniversary of the Refugee Act." Guest speakers included the High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, and the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Eric Schwartz.

For more information about this event, you can...

• Watch the Symposium live.
• Read these related documents: Eric Schwartz's speech, "Advancing Protection in the 21st Century: Reflections on the 30th Anniversary of the U.S. Refugee Act"; UNHCR's press release, "UNHCR chief praises achievements of US refugee programme, calls for continued reform."
• Review recommendations from the Symposium.
• See a video on the Refugee Act of 1980 from Human Rights First.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the 1980 act, new legislation was introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Carl Levin (D-MI) "to strengthen the country’s commitment to protecting refugees fleeing persecution or torture." Here's a summary of the Refugee Protection Act of 2010 from Immigrant Justice. The text of S.3113 is available through the Library of Congress' legislative database, THOMAS.

[Photo credit: Vox Populi]

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