Event Information
Wednesday, May 22 2013 / 12:00 pm
Washington Office on Latin America,1666 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20009
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Currently, hundreds of thousands of refugees live in Latin America from countries in the region and other parts of the world. Please join the Washington Office on Latin America, Asylum Access, and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for this presentation of their report on the refugee status determinations in Latin America. The event will focus on five countries in the region with the objective of discussing regional standards, commitments, challenges, and best practices. The report, a joint effort of four NGOs in the region,* seeks to open a dialogue over strengthening due process and asylum systems in the region. The report focuses on national systems of refugee status determination in five countries—Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico—and provides a review of national frameworks, especially due process, access to information, appeals mechanisms, and abbreviated processes of determination of refugee status. The study of experiences and national legislation in these countries creates an opportunity to discuss national systems’ best practices and challenges that could benefit a regional dialogue. Speakers: Ana White,U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants; and Karina Sarmiento, Asylum Access Ecuador

Contact Information
Jessica Therkelsen
jessica.therkelsen@asylumaccess.org

Event Information
Wednesday, May 15 2013 / 1000 - Thursday, May 16 2013 / 1000 pm
Taipei, Taiwan
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The Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law, in partnership with ASIL's Law in the Pacific Rim Region Interest Group, will hold the International Law Association (ILA)-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum on May 15-16, 2013 in Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. The title of the Research Forum is "International Law and Dispute Resolution: Challenges in the Asia Pacific."

Contact Information
Pasha Hsieh
pashahsieh@smu.edu.sg
+65 6828 0345

Event Information
Tuesday, May 14 2013 / 12:15 PM
New America Foundation 1899 L Street NW Suite 400 Washington, DC 20036
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On March 15, Ben Emmerson, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, released a statement that categorically declared the CIA drone program a “violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty.” That statement followed three days of secret meetings with Pakistani officials, who told Emmerson that they had confirmed 400 civilian deaths in drone strikes since the program began in 2004. In Pakistan, popular support for CIA drone strikes is virtually non-existent. Although public opinion in favor of drone strikes remains quite high in the United States, the targeted killing campaign has come under increasing fire of late from human rights organizations, Congress, and even former U.S. government officials. The New America Foundation’s National Security Studies Program, in co-sponsorship with the American Society of International Law, is pleased to invite you to a conversation with Emmerson about his work investigating human rights violations in the “war on terror,” particularly in relation to the CIA drone program. Tweet @afpakchannel using #dronewars to start the conversation online. Tweet @afpakchannel using #dronewars to start the conversation online.

Contact Information
Stephanie Gunter
gunter@newamerica.net
(202) 596-3367

Event Information
Wednesday, May 08 2013 / 6:30PM
Meeting Hall of the New York City Bar Association, 42 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036
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There has been a great deal of hope, and some very real progress, in the enhancement of gender equality and women’s rights in many of the Muslim majority nations following the surge of freedom and democracy of the Arab Spring. This program will try to put those advancements in historic context and explain and explore both those changes and the likelihood of their becoming permanent or becoming negated, or even reversed, by fundamentalist forces. Moderator: Robert E. Michael - Chair, Subcommittee on Islamic Law of the Council on International Affairs of the Association; former Chair of the Committee on Foreign and Comparative Law; Chair, Islamic Law Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association; Adjunct Professor, Pace University Law School; Managing Member, Robert E. Michael & Associates PLLC. Panelists: Norah Al-Taweel – Saudi Arabian lawyer and May 2013 candidate for an LL.M. Degree in International Law at Pace University Law School. Carole Basri – Adjunct Professor, Fordham University Law School; Vice President of the Women’s Alliance for a Democratic Iraq; President, Corporate Lawyering Group LLC; Senior Vice President, Balint, Brown & Basri LLC. Karima E. Bennoune – Professor of Law, University of California Davis School of Law, author of Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here, Untold Stories From The Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism (forthcoming August 2013). Zeina Jallad - Visiting Scholar and Research Fellow, Columbia Law School Center for Gender and Sexuality Law; Member of the Faculty of Law and Public Administration Law, Birzeit University, Palestine; LL.M. from Columbia Law School. Sali A. Rakower - Senior Fellow of the West Point Center for the Rule of Law and its inaugural Director; formerly associated with White & Case, active in Middle East legal affairs. Sponsors -NYC Bar, Council on International Affairs, , Subcommittee on Islamic Law Co-Sponsors – NYC Bar: Sex and Law Committee and Committee on Women in the Profession; New York Women’s Bar Association; International Women’s Rights Committee of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York; Muslim Bar Association of New York; and PILnet: The Global Network for Public Interest Law.

Contact Information
Rebecca Landy
rebecca.landy@gmail.com

Event Information
Monday, May 06 2013 / 08:30 AM
The Stimson Center 1111 19th Street, NW, 12th Floor Washington, D.C. 20036
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The Stimson Center and the Washington Foreign Law Society invite you to a discussion of the battle among South China Sea neighbors – the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and China – centered on the Philippines’ initiation of a cause against China under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Speakers: John Norton Moore, Walter L. Brown Professor of Law, Director of the Center for National Security Law and Director of Center for Oceans Law and Policy at the University of Virginia School of Law. Retired Navy Capt. J. Ashley Roach, who was the attorney adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State during 1988-2009 with responsibility for law of the sea matters. Jonathan D. Pollack, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution. He was formerly professor of Asian and Pacific Studies at the Naval War College and chairman of the College’s Strategic Research Department. Moderator: Richard Cronin, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Stimson Center. His recent op-ed in Investor’s Business Daily examines the South China Sea Dispute. Speakers will discuss the legal issues under the Law of the Sea Treaty and past jurisprudence on maritime disputes, along with the implications for U.S.-China-Southeast Asia relations and U.S. policy responses.

Contact Information
Zachary Dubel
zdubel@stimson.org
(202) 478-3425.