International Foundation for Health and Environmental Protection “Region Karpat” (NEEKA)

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.

International Foundation for Health and Environmental Protection “Region Karpat” (NEEKA) website

Kirkayak Kultur Arts and Nature Association

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".

Kirkayak Kultur Arts and Nature Association website

Mahmut Sansarkan

Mahmut Sansarkan graduated from the Faculty of Political Science, in the field of Political Science from Istanbul Bilgi University. He has over eight years of national experience in working with disadvantaged groups such as minorities, children, refugees, LGBTQI+ and asylum seekers and leading project management, grant management system, resilience and emergency programs, income generating activities, technical vocational training, food security and economic recovery, entrepreneurship, refugee response, women economic empowerment, child labor, and protection. Mahmut has a special interest in minorities, humanitarian aid, conflict resolution, development, climate change, and gender studies.

Mheadeen Kadora

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 van Burik

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.

Nowras Rahhal

Nowras Rahhal is a stateless scientist who was born as a stateless refugee in Syria in 1993. Despite the disadvantages, he was able to pursue his education. Major part of his education, as a child, was in a primary UNRWA school in Damascus. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Damascus in 2016. He left Syria after 7 years of facing the Syrian civil war atrocities and arrived in Germany in 2018 to continue his studies in a master’s degree in Nanoscience. In 2020, he joined a research group at the Max Planck Institute and contributed to the development of a vaccine candidate for the SARS-CoV2 (Covid-19) pandemic. He is determined to raise more awareness on statelessness and to advocate for the rights of those who lack nationality.

PIC - Legal Centre for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment

PIC – Pravni center za varstvo človekovih pravic in okolja

PIC is a non-governmental organisation focusing on the protection of human rights and the environment. The main areas of work include the protection of the rule of law, refugee and migration law, environmental law and protection of victims of discrimination. PIC provides free legal help and representation and conducts extensive advocacy, policy and awareness activities. 

PIC - Legal Centre for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment website

Praxis

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.

Praxis website

Reem Abbas

I have been working as a humanitarian worker for almost 10 years with different organizations starting with UNHCR in Syria as a case worker and then as a senior child protection officer . As a Palestinian refugee living in Syria it was hard to live within the bad security situation during the war so the only option I had is to flee to Netherlands where I was considered a stateless. Being identified as a stateless person was not easy and made me think that we should pay more attention to this group and identify the risks and problems for this group and trying to find solution and make more awareness among the communities about it. Especially that whenever I am asked about the status on my residence permit and and I say it is stateless people have no idea what it means . in my point of view , there should be more awareness about statelessness as a legal term and then more deep in assessment for stateless people to tackle the issues they face in the country of asylum.
Recently my activities has been with NEW WOMEN CONNECTORS and vluchtelingenwerk Eindhoven and this issue of statelessness is one of things that I am dealing with.

Refugees Union in Portugal - UREP

The Union of Refugees in Portugal – UREP was created on May 10, 2013, formed by refugee communities in Portugal, with the aim of promoting and integrating refugees into Portuguese society. With several buffs of experience in intercultural mediation with refugees from different origins to understand their needs and committed to contributing to the well-being of all refugees in Portugal. UREP, through its actions, aims to understand the needs of refugees and collaborate with other responsible institutions to develop effective responses, contributing to a well-defined and successfully implemented strategy.

Refugees Union in Portugal - UREP website