Our members

Jo Venkov is a UK qualified barrister with extensive experience of immigration, refugee, human rights, EU and international law. Jo has an LLM in International Law focusing on governance, development and human rights from SOAS University. For over two years Jo was the Oxford Policy Fellow and embedded law and policy adviser to the Government of Ethiopia, working in the field of international environmental law, climate change, protected areas legislation and sustainability. Her current role is as an International Adviser with Government Partnerships International, a UK Government unit, which shares UK Civil Service learning with partner governments overseas using a peer-to-peer approach to problem solving and capacity development. Jo writes a blog about the legal aspect of identity such as statelessness, citizenship, documentation and belonging: www.thetornidentity.org

JustRight Scotland is a leading social justice organisation founded by human rights lawyers in Scotland. It uses the law to defend and extend people’s rights by providing direct legal advice to people who would otherwise struggle to access justice.  JRS operates 4 national centres of legal excellence, which provide the only specialist legal advice in these areas across Scotland: (i) the Scottish Refugee & Migrant Centre; (ii) the Scottish Women's Rights Centre; (iii) the Scottish Anti-Trafficking & Exploitation Centre; and (iv) the Scottish Just Law Centre.  Through these centres, it designs social justice collaborations which deliver legal advice in the areas of immigration, gender-based violence, anti-trafficking, and disability and trans discrimination.

Jyothi Kanics has a Masters in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford and a Masters in International Relations from Yale University. She is currently working as an Associate Member of Child Circle and completing her PhD at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lucerne. Since 1995 she has been active with NGOs and international organisations including UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children and OSCE ODIHR advocating for the rights of migrants in vulnerable situations such as separated children, trafficked persons, undocumented migrants and stateless persons. She continues to provide expert advice to the Council of Europe and OSCE as well as to various foundations and NGOs. She is an active individual member of the European Network on Statelessness in Switzerland and advised the ENS on its #StatelessKids campaign.

Katerina Komita is a lawyer before the Supreme Court of Greece specialized in human rights. From 2011 until 2021, she had been a member of the Legal Unit of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) specialized in vulnerable cases. In this context, for seven years she had been the coordinator of the multidisciplinary project Prometheus (provision of holistic services for the recovery from the consequences of torture suffered by asylum seekers and refugees on a legal, social, psychological and medical level). She has contacted the ENS research Statelessness Index-Greece [years 2019, 2020 and 2021 (ongoing)]. Additionally, she has more than 15 years of experience as a journalist.

Katia Bianchini is a researcher at Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany, where she is conducting research on refugee law and statelessness. She holds a law degree from the University of Pavia (Italy), an LL.M. in Comparative Laws from the University of San Diego (California, USA), and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of York (UK). Her doctoral thesis provided an empirical and legal analysis of how the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons is implemented in ten EU states. She has also worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (Göttingen). Before engaging in research, she practised immigration and refugee law for ten years in the UK and the USA for about 10 years.

Kırkayak Kültür, since its establishment in 2011, organizes social, cultural and art activities to help empower socially and culturally disadvantaged groups at risk, and to integrate society in dialogue and solidarity to end prejudices and discrimination against these groups. Besides, Kırkayak Kültür carries out social, cultural and art activities; studies on humanitarian issues caused by political and social circumstances in the Middle East in addition to existing issues as immigration, being a refugee, disadvantaged groups and cultures, also findings are presented to people nationwide and worldwide.

Kırkayak Kültür currently hosts its studies in two separate locations in Gaziantep: “Kırkayak Kültür Art Center" and "Kırkayak Kültür - Center for Migration and Cultural Studies".

Law Center of Advocates (LCA) is a public association founded in 1997. LCA’s mission is to implement projects and programs aimed at promoting the Rule of Law, judicial independence and respect for human rights in Moldova. It provides specialist legal training and other technical drafting functions. LCA offers legal assistance to all refugees, asylum seekers, beneficiaries of humanitarian protection and stateless persons. LCA is UNHCR’s legal implementing partner in Moldova.

The Legal Information Centre for Human Rights (LICHR) was founded in May 1994. In its activities the LICHR has mapped four high priority strategic spheres. Firstly, conflict prevention: identifying the causes of potential conflicts through analysis and dissemination of information, as well as by enhancement of awareness and knowledge about the human and minority rights. Secondly, fostering the creation of a society based on human rights. Thirdly, analysis of the legislation for its conformity with the international instruments on human and minority rights. Fourthly, the provision of legal advice and aid (through hotline, online and personal consultations) to individuals and groups of individuals, whose rights are violated or are not duly guaranteed.

Lithuanian Red Cross (LRC) is a humanitarian organization that provides different kinds of assistance to asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and stateless people in Lithuania. LRC monitors conduct border monitoring, which covers monitoring at the borders, asylum seekers' detention and accommodation centers and initial asylum interviews. LRC lawyers provide regular legal consultations to asylum seekers at the borders, detention and accommodation centers, as well as legal counseling to stateless people, residing in the territory of Lithuania. The focus of LRC strategic litigation is on asylum cases, detention of vulnerable asylum seekers cases and non penalization for illegal border crossing cases. LRC case managers assist asylum seekers at community based accommodation and refugees during their integration in municipalities. LRC runs two one stop shop centers in Kaunas and Klaipeda, where any foreigner can receive social, employment, legal, psychological assistance, learn Lithuanian language, get orientation courses and participate in community events. LRC advocacy focuses on reception conditions and asylum procedures, integration, community based accommodation for most vulnerable people, family reunification. LRC also provides Restoring Family Links services to those people, who are in need to contact, trace or reunite with their family members.

The Liverpool Law Clinic is part of the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool. The Clinic provides a free legal service. Third year law students work on immigration and asylum cases, including the cases of stateless people, under the extremely close supervision of qualified lawyers who are specialists in the field. Staff at the Law Clinic started this work in 2013 and now contribute to policy initiatives at national and international level.