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Advocating Duress And Infancy Exceptions To The Persecutor Bar To Asylum For Former Child-Soldiers, Joshua Dankoff

Joshua Dankoff

After briefly discussing asylum law, the persecutor bar to asylum, and the 2009 Supreme Court decision Negusie v. Holder, this paper argues that former child soldiers are a unique population of asylum seekers. The article considers the wide use of duress in domestic and international law, and briefly discusses the infancy defense. The article then argues that a lack of duress exception to the persecutor bar for former child soldiers negatively impacts child asylum seekers, and proposes that the Board of Immigration Appeals read in both a duress and infancy exception to the persecutor bar to asylum.