Protecting Foreign Victims of Domestic Violence: an Analysis of Asylum Regulations

Asylum practice can be daunting because the plight of asylum seekers is so extreme. Being “among the world’s most desperate people,”1 they have fled their homes, looking for protection elsewhere. Yet that protection is often not easily achieved. They must not only establish that persecutory country conditions exist in their home countries, but that they are likely targets of that persecution. And they must often do this through translators. Not surprisingly, denials frequently result from negative findings on credibility because it is so difficult to establish that an individual is a likely target for persecution.2 While all participants in asylum proceedings are involved in a high stakes enterprise, asylum seekers alleging state failure to curb domestic violence face additional difficulties because of enormous evidentiary problems, murky legal standards, and the fact that domestic violence claims depart from the usual paradigm for asylum cases. Most asylum applicants seek protection from persecution by their home countries.3 But the applicant seeking asylum on domestic vio-