Kate Jastram ’87, a lecturer at Boalt, will receive the Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) for her work on a study of asylum seekers in expedited removal. She is a co-recipient of the award along with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the Expedited Removal Study Team, on which she served as an expert. Established by legislation in 1996, expedited removal allows immigration officials summarily to return people arriving in the United States without proper documentation to their country of origin.
The AILA Human Rights Award was established in 1983 to recognize outstanding service in advancing the cause of human rights. The award was designated as the Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award in 2003. Helton—a director and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations—died in the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. A lawyer and human rights activist, Helton dedicated his professional life to working with refugees and recommending ways to ease their plight.
Jastram will receive the award at the AILA Annual Conference in Salt Lake City on June 25, 2005.