Taking the "Force" out of Enforcement: Giving Effect to International Human Rights Law Using Domestic Immigration Law

In this article, the author argues that domestic immigration and refugee policies can be interpreted as domestic enforcement of international human rights law obligations. The author focuses on how domestic laws are giving effect to the human rights of women refugees. Women's status as refugees constitutes an international recognition that their country of origin has violated their human rights. The author contends that United States domestic refugee law is beginning to recognize the categories of "woman" and "feminist" as particular social or political groups who can suffer persecution through violations of their rights to physical integrity, freedom from sexual violence, self-expression, and reproductive choice. The article concludes that such domestic recognition is a tool of enforcement for international human rights law because it relieves victims from persecution and draws attention to the violators of human rights. [Descriptors: Key Treaties and Texts, Migration - Refugees and Immigration, International]