[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 8, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 8CFR208.1]

[Page 188-189]
 
                     TITLE 8--ALIENS AND NATIONALITY
 
CHAPTER I--IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
 
PART 208--PROCEDURES FOR ASYLUM AND WITHHOLDING OF REMOVAL--Table of Contents
 
              Subpart A--Asylum and Withholding of Removal
 
Sec. 208.1  General.


    (a) Applicability. Unless otherwise provided in this chapter, this 
subpart shall apply to all applications for asylum under section 208 of 
the Act or for withholding of deportation or withholding of removal 
under section 241(b)(3) of the Act, or under the Convention Against 
Torture, whether before an asylum officer or an immigration judge, 
regardless of the date of filing. For purposes of this chapter, 
withholding of removal shall also mean withholding of deportation under 
section 243(h) of the Act, as it appeared prior to April 1, 1997, except 
as provided in Sec. 208.16(d). Such applications are hereinafter 
referred to as ``asylum applications.'' The provisions of this part 
shall not affect the finality or validity of any decision made by a 
district director, an immigration judge, or the Board of Immigration 
Appeals in any such case prior to April 1, 1997. No asylum application 
that was filed with a district director, asylum officer, or immigration 
judge prior to April 1, 1997, may be reopened or otherwise reconsidered 
under the provisions of this part except by motion granted in the 
exercise of discretion by the Board of Immigration Appeals, an 
immigration judge, or an asylum officer for proper cause shown. Motions 
to reopen or reconsider must meet the requirements

[[Page 189]]

of sections 240(c)(5) and (c)(6) of the Act, and 8 CFR parts 3 and 103, 
where applicable.
    (b) Training of asylum officers. The Director of International 
Affairs shall ensure that asylum officers receive special training in 
international human rights law, nonadversarial interview techniques, and 
other relevant national and international refugee laws and principles. 
The Director of International Affairs shall also, in cooperation with 
the Department of State and other appropriate sources, compile and 
disseminate to asylum officers information concerning the persecution of 
persons in other countries on account of race, religion, nationality, 
membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, torture 
of persons in other countries, and other information relevant to asylum 
determinations, and shall maintain a documentation center with 
information on human rights conditions.

[64 FR 8487, Feb. 19, 1999]