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, Michelleā€™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.

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

PIC ā€“ 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.Ā 

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

Rights Georgia

Rights Georgia (formerly known as ā€œArticle 42 of the Constitutionā€) is a non-profit entity founded in September 1997 uniting professionals to promote human rights and freedom. Rights Georgia takes a multifaceted approach: promoting human rights awareness and supporting the development of national legislation to international human rights standards by monitoring state activities.Ā 
The mission of the organization is to assist the promotion of rights guaranteed in different international agreements and support their implementation; to support the establishment of the rule of law; to develop the system of justice; to support the work of human rights defenders; to work on public awareness about human rights and tolerance, and to support the enhancement of professional legal education.
Rights Georgia is a sole legal partner of the UNHCR in Georgia and the only organization in Georgia, which is focused on protecting and empowering asylum seekers, refugees, humanitarian status holders, and statelessness persons. Rights Georgia provides legal assistance and legal consultation to the persons of concern on asylum-related cases, as well as on access to rights and expulsion cases. Ā 

Rights Georgia website

Statefree

Statefree was founded in 2021 with the mission of building a community of belonging and empowering stateless people. Statefree, initiated and led by Christiana Bukalo, a stateless woman born in Germany, Ā has become the ļ¬rst German non-proļ¬t dedicated to the topic of statelessness and now centres their work around three pillars: community, visibility and equal rights. In 2021 Statefree launched an online community platform community.statefree.world and since then has been hosting live and online community events in which stateless people and their allies can connect and share their experiences. Through community-engaged art, communication and media Statefree also osters visibility and awareness of the issue of statelessness in the public sphere. Narratives around statelessness are thereby reshaped, making sure the voices of those affected by statelessness are ampliļ¬ed. Since true empowerment of stateless people is only possible if they have access to rights, Statefree has expanded its work to the realm of political advocacy in the German political sphere.

Statefree website

Thomas McGee

Thomas McGee is a PhD researcher at the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness. There, he is working on statelessness in the Syrian context. Since 2011, Thomas has served as an expert on cases of stateless Kurds from Syria within European asylum processes. Speaking Arabic and Kurdish, he has also worked on statelessness more widely in the Middle Eastern and diaspora contexts, publishing on the issue in a number of academic and policy publications. With ENS, Thomas has contributed to the Stateless Journeys project about the experiences of stateless asylum seekers and refugees in Europe, and continues to engage in the issue. As well as being an Individual Member of ENS, Thomas is co-coordinator of the recently established MENA Statelessness Network (Hawiati).

Thomas McGee website

Trixiewiz e.V.

Trixiewiz e.V. is a migrant and feminist organisation committed to creating sustainable forms of solidarity in a society shaped by migration. We see ourselves as a space for collaborative networking where we can develop new and effective forms of transnational political participation. To do so, we organise emancipatory projects in which migrants (particularly women*) are treated not simply as audience members, but, above all, as experts in their own right. Through political, cultural, and educational programmes for people who have experienced migration and/or flight, we develop participatory strategies to combat racism and discrimination and initiate processes of self-empowerment.Ā 

Trixiewiz e.V. website