About the event
The conference will take place on 8-9 June 2023 at the Universidad Complutense Madrid. The event is organised by the European Network on Statelessness in collaboration with Fundación Cepaim and the Universidad Complutense Madrid.
The conference will bring together the insights and perspectives of experts from across Europe, including lawyers, NGOs, stateless activists, refugee community representatives and academics, as well as representatives from regional institutions, governments, inter-governmental-organisations, ombudspersons/monitoring bodies and other stakeholders mandated to work on issues related to statelessness and forced migration.
The programme is designed as an interactive space to facilitate the sharing of information and good practices. The objective is to identify new solutions and galvanise an effective pan-regional strategy to address current gaps and problems. The conference will also include some sessions dedicated to the specific context in Spain, as well as provide a forum to debate opportunities to address statelessness during Spain’s forthcoming Presidency of the EU.
Directions
The main part of the conference (Thursday registration and all of the plenary sessions) will take place at the Faculty of Filology - Building D (Facultad de Filología – Edificio D), pictured below. For location of Building D please use this Google Maps link (or search using coordinates 40.4489, -3.7328).
The parallel workshops, which are scheduled on Thursday (2-4PM) and Friday (9-11AM) will take place in Faculty of Filology - Building A (Facultad de Filología – Edificio A). For location of Building A please use this Google Maps link (or search using coordinates 40.4489, -3.7305).
Please note that Friday 9 June starts with the parallel sessions in Building A. Please go straight to Building A on Friday morning. Arrival is at 8.30AM.
The buildings are approximately a 3-minute walk apart.
Programme
The conference programme is now available in English and Spanish.
Registrants will be given the option to choose from the available parallel sessions.
Speakers
Jim Clarken
Chair of the Management Board, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Gillian Triggs
Assistant Secretary-General, High Commissioner for Protection UNHCR
Juan Fernando López Aguilar
Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
Leyla Kayacik
Council of Europe Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees
Aleksandra Semeriak Gavrilenok
Individual ENS member and formerly stateless person
Nina Gregori
Executive Director of the EU Agency for Asylum
Razan Ismail
Chief Operating Officer, New Women Connectors
Isabella Goicoeche Aranguren
Spain Under-Secretary for the Ministry of the Interior
Professor Ángeles Solanes Corella
Professor of Philosophy of Law, University of Valencia
Chris Nash
Director, European Network on Statelessness
Jean Lambert
Former MEP and ENS Trustee
Elvis Beriša
Executive Director, Phiren Amenca ‘Walk with Us’
Gábor Gyulai
Organisational Development Director and Training Expert, Hungarian Helsinki Committee
Aleksejs Ivashuk
Founder of Apatride Network
Zoe Gardner
Policy & Research Manager, European Network on Statelessness
Patrícia Cabral
Legal Policy Coordinator, European Network on Statelessness
Yonous Muhammadi
President of the Greek Forum of Refugees
Information for attendees
Language
The conference languages are English and Spanish.
Simultaneous interpreting in English and Spanish will be provided for conference plenary sessions only.
Separate parallel workshops will run in English and Spanish (see the programme for further details). Interpreting will not be provided for parallel workshops.
Refreshments
Lunch and refreshments will be provided free of charge.
Cocktail Reception
In addition to the main conference programme, we are pleased to announce that at the end of the day on Thursday 8th we will be hosting a Cocktail reception from 6 - 7.30PM. The reception will be held at the University with welcome remarks by Sophie Muller (UNHCR Representative in Spain), followed by informal networking.
About the issue
Statelessness affects over half a million people in Europe – both recent migrants and those who have lived in the same place for generations. People become stateless – meaning they are not recognised by any country as a national – because of state succession, gaps in nationality laws, discrimination, displacement, and nationality stripping, among others. Being stateless means people have no legal identity, and the failure to recognise it can result in serious fundamental rights violations, including barriers to being recognised as refugees or to naturalisation, and the risk of being subjected to prolonged and arbitrary detention in the migratory context.
Despite the extent of the problem, many states still lack robust polices to address statelessness. Critically, only a handful of countries in Europe have a dedicated statelessness determination procedure to identify people on their territory without a nationality and to offer appropriate protection status (including residence and other rights under the 1954 Convention) and subsequent naturalisation. Moreover, recent data shows that statelessness is a growing problem that needs to be addressed as part of Europe’s refugee response. According to Eurostat, approximately 3% of those applying for asylum in the European Union are recorded as ‘stateless’ or of ‘unknown nationality’. ENS’s #StatelessJourneys campaign aims to shine a light on this little-understood issue and call on European states to fulfil their duty to protect stateless refugees.
ENS and Fundación Cepaim are grateful to Oak Foundation, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Fundación "la Caixa", Comic Relief and the UN Refugee Agency for their generous support of this event, as well as to the University Complutense for hosting and providing the conference space.
