JustRight Scotland

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.

JustRight Scotland website

Katerina Komita

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.

Maeliss (Mae) Guillaud

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.

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.

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.

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

Red Acoge

Red Acoge is a nonprofit organization with a network made up of 20 Spanish associations working at local and regional level. We work on the issue of equality of treatment and non-discrimination from an interdisciplinary perspective. We inform and denounce Public policies and legislative changes, such as the above mentioned, raising awareness and disseminating relevant information. We provide social and legal assistance to victims of discrimination, as well as developing education and social integration projects to form an inclusive and multicultural society. We also work with other agencies to improve information and mechanisms regarding access to justice and data collection on the subject.

Red Acoge 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

Rights Georgia

Rights Georgia (formerly known as “Article 42 of the Constitution”) 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. 
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.  

Rights Georgia website