Our members

Ahmad Jaber, alias Ahmad Benswait, is a stateless researcher in the United Kingdom. He is originally from a minority indigenous to the lands of Kuwait but excluded from the right to Kuwaiti nationality since the country’s independence from Britain. Benswait’s research is informed by his lived experiences of statelessness, including being arbitrarily classed ‘illegal (Bidoon) resident’ in what has always been his homeland, the deprivation of basic human rights and forced migration.

Aleksandra Semeriak Gavrilenok holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political and Administration Sciences and a Master’s degree in Migration Studies from the University Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona. A former non-citizen herself, she became actively involved in raising awareness of statelessness and minority rights, becoming an individual member of the ENS in 2015. Aleksandra is currently working in the field of refugee, asylum seeker and stateless people reception in Spain.

Andrea Saccucci is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" and Adjunct Professor of International Organizations and Human Rights at the LUISS of Rome. He qualified as Full Professor of International Law in 2018. He is a practising lawyer specialized in litigating individual and collective cases before the European Court of Human Rights and other international tribunals or bodies. He is also an expert of the Council of Europe, EU and OSCE for human rights training activities throughout Europe. He has authored many books and articles in international law, human rights, and criminal justice.

Armando Augello Cupi is a stateless university student of Global Humanities at Sapienza University of Rome and he is the President of the first Italian organisation led by stateless people named Unione Italiana Apolidi. He studied for a year with Princeton University taking courses in Global History Lab and Global History Dialogues, analysing global historical contexts in which refugees, migrants and stateless persons were the focus of the study together with global history. By the end of this experience, he wrote a research project on restrictions in education for the Rohingya communities, considering Burma and the Cox'Bazaar refugee camp.

Denis started his career in the Refugee-Law-Clinic Bochum, as a legal consultant. He is the author of several articles published by the Human Rights League of France. Denis has been a delegate for ELSA international NGO in the committee on enforced disappearances. He graduated from the Strasbourg University as a Master of fundamental Rights. Since then he is pursuing his second Master degree in Human Rights and international humanitarian law at the Pantheon-Assas university in Paris. 

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.

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.

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.

Hello, I am Mheadeen Kadora, Palestinian of origin, born in Syria, stateless, I grew up in Syria and received my education until I got a degree in information engineering, currently, I am in Germany to complete my education and obtain a master's degree. 

Michelle is an Individual Member of ENS who has worked on Roma rights issues for twenty years. She is an expert in frontline casework, holistic support for individual cases as well as political lobbying on statelessness issues. Alongside this work, Michelle’s grassroots mobilisation and community engagement work is focused on raising awareness on the effects of antigypsyism related to statelessness. Currently Michelle is active as a guest History Lecturer in schools and universities, curates exhibitions and gives presentations in Dutch, English and German. She is active at local, national and European level.