VAWA

Dear Partners,
Thank you for the important work you do for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault,
trafficking, and related crimes. Your work and experiences on the field are necessary and crucial to informing the policy debate around VAWA (Violence Against Women Act). VAWA is scheduled for reauthorization in 2011 and discussions are underway on what should be in VAWA IV. We are trying to identify legislative reforms that impact immigrant survivors. Help shape the discussion and VAWA IV by sharing your knowledge and experience. Together, we can shape VAWA IV to better enable survivors to access safety and justice.

We need your input! Here is how you can participate in the process:
Send us your ideas on what needs to be changed or improved. Specifically include the following:
any particular statutes that need to be changed, deleted, or supplemented and how; and
the impact of this change or why the current provisions of law are inadequate to protect immigrant victims.

Please note that you may be encountering problems in your work with immigrant survivors or as a survivor yourself that may or may not be solved by a change in legislation. For example, there are laws that have not been implemented and it is that implementation that is required. On other occasions, there might be an administrative or legislative change needed or both. If you are not sure if there is a legislative solution, err on making your list as comprehensive as possible and we will sort them out.

While it might appear early to start working on this, it will be a long process. There are occasionally times in which we can add to our wish list later in the process but later additions are always much harder to have included in the final legislation. As such, it is critical that you all take some time now to think about your wish list. VAWA is only reauthorized every five years and if a provision does not get included in VAWA IV, it will be a long wait…

Please respond to marian@evenme.org with your thoughts and ideas by 6 May 09.
Thank you.