Our members

OPU, the Organization for Aid to Refugees, is the oldest and largest non-governmental organization in the Czech Republic which assists refugees, stateless persons and migrants. We provide free in-person legal and social aid to refugees, stateless persons and migrants. OPU offers this help throughout the entire country by means of aid in all eight reception, accommodation and detention centers and five regional offices. OPU has been the watchdog of any unlawful practices and systemic failures of the Czech asylum and migration policy, including statelessness procedure. This helps us to create systemic change. OPU’s director and lawyers appear in media regularly, criticizing the Czech Ministry of Interior and laws that hurt migrants. OPU has successfully represented many refugees, stateless persons and their families, has fought against unlawful detention and prevented deportation of the most vulnerable individuals and has publicly reported on grave breaches of international law.

The People for Change Foundation is a Malta based, human rights organization focusing on research, lobbying an capacity building. Our key areas of work include: migration, asylum, trafficking, racism, children’s rights and youth participation. We work closely with other Maltese organizations as well as organizations and networks in various European countries and with other partners in other parts of the world. We support educational and research endeavors on migration related issues and seek to conduct our own high quality and policy relevant research. 

Praxis is a non-governmental organization based in Belgrade, Serbia and dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights. Since 2004, Praxis has focused on the issues most relevant to the displaced and members of vulnerable minority groups, such as the Roma community. One such issue is the plight of the many persons who are currently stateless, legally invisible and/or at a risk of statelessness in the Western Balkan region. Praxis has spear-headed a multi-tiered effort aimed at solving this problem, preventing and reducing statelessness, involving the advocacy for changes to law and practice, provision of free legal aid, to persons at risk, publishing human rights reports on the subject, and providing training and awareness raising. Praxis’ legal advocacy is informed by its general goals: the eradication of discrimination, poverty and racism, and a vibrant civil society shaped by democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights.

Red Acoge is a nonprofit organization with a network made up of 20 Spanish associations working at local and regional level. We work on the issue of equality of treatment and non-discrimination from an interdisciplinary perspective. We inform and denounce Public policies and legislative changes, such as the above mentioned, raising awareness and disseminating relevant information. We provide social and legal assistance to victims of discrimination, as well as developing education and social integration projects to form an inclusive and multicultural society. We also work with other agencies to improve information and mechanisms regarding access to justice and data collection on the subject.

Roua is a PhD candidate at the Transitional Justice Institute (TJI)/ Ulster University. Her research is on transformative gender justice, examining forced displacement-associated socioeconomic harms experienced since the start of conflict in Syria in 2011. She focuses on a particular, yet significant, segment of the population: the displaced families affected by the gender discriminatory nationality law(s) (GDNL) and with children at risk of statelessness.

Sangita Bajulaiye is the advocacy and outreach officer at the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI). She is responsible for coordinating the human rights advocacy work, involved in movement building, and conducts research on (children’s) right to a nationality in unrecognised states. She represented ISI on the governance board of the Statelessness Network Asia Pacific (SNAP). Sangita is also a PhD candidate at Tilburg University (Tilburg Law School). Her PhD research focuses on (arbitrary) deprivation of nationality and the implications this has for the citizen-state relation. She holds an LLM in International and European Law from the same university. Sangita is also one of the "Faces of Science" appointed by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Sdružení pro integraci a migraci (the Association for Integration and Migration (AIM)) is a non-profit, non-government organization based in Prague, the Czech Republic. For the past 20 years it has provided legal and social counselling to third country nationals and stateless persons living in the Czech Republic. AIM also attempts to use its legal counselling experience and knowledge in support of advocacy and legislative activities within the Czech Republic and the wider EU.

The Swedish Organization Against Statelessness is an NGO that raises awareness on issues relating to statelessness. The organization mainly works with advocacy and lobbying. The goal of the organization is to amplify the voices of stateless persons, which is done through a reference group, in order to change policy and laws to end statelessness and ensure the protection of stateless persons’ rights.

The Swedish Network of Refugee Support Groups, FARR, is a politically and religiously independent umbrella organization that assists refugee groups, asylum committees and individuals. We are well established in Sweden since 1988. FARR sees providing information about the asylum system at all stages of the procedure to asylum-seekers. Therefore, we have produced a guide called “Good Advice to Asylum Seekers” published in six languages and available on our websitewww.farr.se. FARR is a grassroots’ organization where all the work is done on a voluntary basis. The 55 local groups  cooperate with asylum lawyers and have members that are experienced in asylum law and rules. Our services are free. FARR operates a volunteer help-line to deal with questions from asylum-seekers and those assisting them. Journalists from the media also contact us on a regular basis. People seeking information or advice can also send e-mail requests toinfo@farr.se  that are answered by law-students under the supervision of an experienced board member.

The Unione Italiana Apolidi is a non-profit association in Italy led by stateless or former stateless persons. Its objective is to inform and raise awareness on the issue of statelessness through advocacy, becoming a reference point and a bridge that connect fragmented stateless communities and public institutions.