News

An amicus curiae brief drafted by the Law School's Human Rights Litigation and International Legal Advocacy Clinic was cited by two circuit judges in a recent oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. Prof. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin signed the brief, which was drafted by Prof. Jennifer Green as Counsel of Record and by student attorneys Astrid Brouillard ('12), Anne Fuchs ('12), James C. Horvath ('12), Melissa Muro Lamere ('12), Nathaniel Nesbitt ('11), Feras Sleiman ('12), and Leo Twiggs ('11).

Students and faculty working at the University of Minnesota's Immigration and Human Rights Law Clinic have secured asylum for another client fleeing political persecution, the third time in recent months that the Clinic's efforts have enabled a person fleeing danger abroad to remain in the United States.

The University of Minnesota Law School's Immigration and Human Rights Law Clinic has secured safe haven in the United States for a client who fled repeated detention and torture in central Africa in 2003. Government forces in his homeland believed (incorrectly) that the client and his wife supported the political opposition. He was held in a small cell, beaten repeatedly, and deprived of food and sanitary facilities. His wife was beaten, raped, and subjected to electric shocks.

Through the efforts of the University of Minnesota Law School's Immigration and Human Rights Law Clinic, a west African woman can put to rest her fears of female genital mutilation. She has been granted asylum in the United States.