The IMBR Initiative was founded at Georgetown University Law Center in 2008. Since then, the text of the IMBR and the other IMBR tools have been drafted in consultation with migrants and other civil society actors; policymakers at the national, regional and international levels; and students and scholars of migration. The early work of the IMBR Initiative was managed as a collaboration between the American University in Cairo, the Global Law Scholars program at Georgetown University Law Center, the Migration Studies Unit at the London School of Economics and the Minerva Institute at Hebrew University. In addition to past support by those institutions, the IMBR Initiative has received support from the International Migration Initiative of the Open Society Foundations.

A detailed history of the early work of the IMBR was published in 2010 in Volume 24 of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal (see also a list of those who have contributed to the drafting of the IMBR Tools since the IMBR Initiative was founded).

Steering Committee

The following members sit on the IMBR Initiative Steering Committee in their personal capacities:

Justin Gest (co-chair), Assistant Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University
Ian Kysel (co-chair), Staff Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California
Bianca Santos (co-chair), Staff Attorney, Pangea Legal Services
Becca Balis, Legal Consultant, UNICEF
Shaw Drake, Policy Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union, Border Rights Center
Elizabeth Gibson, Staff Attorney, New York Legal Assistance Group

Contact Us

To contact the IMBR Initiative, write to TheIMBRInitiative@gmail.com.