Oasis Partners with the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies to make LGBTQIA+ Country Reports Widely Available
Oasis is nationally known for its culturally competent legal representation, case management and support systems for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. Integral to winning each legal case is submitting proof that the types of harm the asylum applicant suffered, or fears of suffering in the future, are documented in their country of origin—so-called country-conditions documentation. Oasis has compiled extensive country-conditions research on the treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals and created up-to-date documentation packets for Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia and Brazil (as well as multiple countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East), including translations of foreign-language articles and reports. Our Mexico document packet alone contains hundreds of articles of supporting evidence. In 2021, Oasis solidified a partnership with University of California Hastings Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS) to make these documents available to asylum advocates and legal professionals nationwide representing LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. CGRS receives thousands of requests annually from advocates and attorneys throughout the U.S. for support with many different kinds of asylum cases. Between February 2020 and February 2021, for example, “[we] received around 800 requests in LGBTQ cases…for 79 different countries,” said Christine Lin, Director of Training & Technical Assistance at CGRS. Additional materials provided to advocates by CGRS now also include information about Oasis’s technical-assistance program, as well as access to specific guides for particular legal issues often faced by LGBTQ + asylum seekers. With the dissemination of these materials to the larger legal community, Oasis is excited to expand the capacity of attorneys and asylum advocates around the country to provide high-quality, culturally sensitive representation to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. To access CGRS’s TA Library, create an account on the CGRS website. To obtain resources for an asylum case, like those listed above, fill out a case intake form. Based on the information provided in the case intake, advocates will be given on-demand access to tailored CGRS resources. For further information, see the TA Library Instructionsand Technical Assistance FAQ. |