Grounds for Asylum: How Victims' Rights Laws Confer Particular Social Group Status to Domestic Violence Victims

Authors

Jordan Cotleur, University of Cincinnati College of Law

Abstract

Despite an uptake in legislation criminalizing domestic violence since the 1990’s, women in Latin America still face the highest rates of gender-based and domestic violence of any region in the world. In Central America, two-thirds of female homicide victims are killed because of their status as a woman (also known as “femicide”) and half of women face this fate at the hands of a current or former partner. The violence perpetuates at such an alarming rate because investigations into gender-based violence are nearly non-existent in the region. In 2016, it was reported that up to ninety-eight percent of cases involving femicide and violence against women and girls in Latin America went unpunished.

Recommended Citation

Cotleur, Jordan (2020) "Grounds for Asylum: How Victims' Rights Laws Confer Particular Social Group Status to Domestic Violence Victims," Immigration and Human Rights Law Review: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 1.
Available at: https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/ihrlr/vol2/iss1/1