Our members

Haqqi Bahram is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO) of Linköping University, Sweden. His research focuses on the legacy of statelessness and identity formation in post-statelessness and forced displacement contexts. His work engages experiences of stateless Syrian Kurds in Europe to study stateless standpoints and activism, social and political inclusion and transitional justice. Haqqi teaches on citizenship, exclusion and conflict and he has previously worked as a senior officer on humanitarian aid and development programmes implemented in Syria.

Humanrights.ch is a Swiss non-profit organization founded in 1999 with the main aim of gathering and providing information, raising public awareness, monitoring state action and counselling on human rights issues and the human rights situation in Switzerland. Today, the online-platform www.humanrights.ch is one of the most important independent information-platforms for international human rights in the German-speaking world. Humanrights.ch has particular expertise in coordinating and publishing reports and opinions on the human rights situation in Switzerland and has contributed to a number of reports to UN and Council of Europe monitoring bodies. In collaboration with ENS, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion as well as Terre des hommes Foundation, humanrights.ch has submitted a joint submission on statelessness to the Human Rights Council for the third Universal Periodic Review of Switzerland in 2017. Humanrights.ch further offers a legal aid program for persons in the penal system and coordinates a network for victims of racial discrimination. Finally, humanrights.ch is very well connected as a founding member of the NGO Platform Human Rights Switzerland, a network of over 80 Swiss NGOs working in the field of human rights.

Information Legal Centre (ILC) is a non-governmental organisation founded in 2002. It continued the work of the Legal Centre of International Rescue Committee, American humanitarian organisation, which started its work in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, in 1998. Our purpose is to promote and protect human rights and civil liberties, to strengthen society of tolerance and to provide direct services to the most vulnerable members of our society. In order to accomplish our aims, ILC provides professional services, including free legal aid and protection against discrimination, to the marginalised groups with special emphasis on members of Roma national minority, stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness, elderly persons, women, disabled persons and victims and witnesses of criminal offences.

International Foundation for Health and Environment Protection "Region Karpat" (the abbreviation in Hungarian is NEEKA) is the international charitable organization, created in 1996 and registered in 1998 as a legal entity in Zakarpattya region, Ukraine. Since that time NEEKA contributed to the development of health protection, medical assistance to the population, social protection for persons with vulnerabilities, and as one of the key direction -free legal aid and partially social assistance to such vulnerable groups as asylum seekers, refugees, stateless persons and Roma people. Our NGO has a well-established cooperation and relationship with government bodies at the local and central levels, as well as with other civil society institutions involved into this scope.

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.

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.

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".

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.

I am a French and New York licensed attorney. I studied one year in South Korea, earned a JD from Sorbonne Law school and completed an LL.M from UCLA. I helped a charity foundation to promote children’s rights in Bangladesh. I lived in Boston for 2 years and assisted an association in the field of sexual violence in civil society and in the incarcerated population. As a probono attorney, I helped underrepresented residents with cognitive impairments to access US citizenship. Finally, I am an active legal fellow of UnitedStateless, an organization promoting human rights for stateless individuals in the US. I intend to join the immigration committee of Lille bar and help people by providing free legal advice but also by supporting them on their journey to access citizenship. I have a strong interest in ethics and justice and wishes to further structural changes to prevent civil rights violations.