monday 15 september 2014

MONDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2014
08.30 – 09.15:
Registration
09.15 – 10.00:
Plenary
10.00 – 11.00:
Plenary
11.00 – 11.30:
Coffee break
11.30 – 13.00:
Thematic Panels
13.00 – 14.00:
Lunch
14.00 – 15.30:
Plenary
15.30 – 16.00:
Coffee break
16.00 – 18.00:
Thematic panels
18.00
Conference photograph
18.00 – 20.00:
Reception & ‘Nowhere People’ exhibition, introduced by Krisztina
Berta (Ministry of Interior, Hungary) and the photographer, Greg
Constantine
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Welcome and keynote address by Volker Türk, UNHCR Director of International
Protection: “Ending Statelessness: An Imperative for the 21st Century ”
A roundtable discussion on “Experiences of Statelessness” with stateless persons,
led by writer and critic Adrian Gill
Plenary Room*: The prevention of statelessness: contemporary tools and challenges
Seminar Room: Children’s experiences of statelessness
Reading Room: Denationalisation as persecution
Small Court Room *: Experiences of statelessness and displacement
Poster presentations (from 13.30): Iran, Ireland and Nepal
Presentation by Laurien Koster, President of the Netherlands Institute for Human
Rights of a Joint Statement on Statelessness of the network of European National
Human Rights Institutions
Keynote address by Nils Muižnieks, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council
of Europe: “Eradicating statelessness in the Council of Europe member states:
recent achievements and remaining challenges”
Plenary Room*: From the right to a nationality to naturalisation and resettlement
Seminar Room: Birth registration and statelessness - regional perspectives
Reading Room: Networking for change: the importance of collaboration on
statelessness
Small Court Room*: Statelessness and paralegal projects
* English-French interpretation is available for all sessions in the
Plenary Room and the Small Court Room
Details of roundtables, side events poster, panel & workshop
sessions follow from page 4
TUESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2014
09.00 – 11.00:
Thematic panels
11.00 – 11.30:
Coffee break
11.30 – 13.00:
Thematic panels
13.00 – 14.00:
Lunch
14.00 – 15.30:
Plenary
15.30 – 16.00:
Coffee break
16.00 – 18.00:
Thematic panels
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Plenary Room*: The nexus between stateless persons, refugees & international
protection
Seminar Room: Statelessness, the right to education, work and health, and the nexus
with human trafficking
Reading Room: Affecting change: Exploring how and why action is taken on
statelessness
Small Court Room *: Statelessness and media
Poster presentations: Madagascar, Spain, Thailand
Plenary Room*: Birth registration and statelessness – national case studies
Seminar Room: Exploring the utility of statelessness determination
Reading Room: Addressing statelessness through foreign policy
Small Court Room *: Statelessness and surrogacy
Side Event (from 13.30): Launch of new Cambridge University Press edited
collection “Nationality and Statelessness under International Law”
Poster presentations (from 13.30): Iraq, Ukraine, Cambodia
A roundtable discussion on “Statelessness and Empowerment” with stateless and
formerly stateless persons, led by Barbara Hendricks, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
Plenary Room*: Legal, policy and operational measures to resolve large-scale
statelessness situations
Seminar Room: Addressing statelessness as a product of irregular / forced migration
Reading Room: Statelessness and strategic litigation
Small Court Room *: Teaching statelessness, including through university law clinics
* English-French interpretation is available for all sessions in the
Plenary Room and the Small Court Room
Details of roundtables, side events poster, panel & workshop
sessions follow from page 4
WEDNESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2014
09.00 – 10.15:
Plenary
10.15 – 10.45:
Coffee break
10.45 – 12.30:
Cross-theme panels on specific situations of statelessness
12.30 – 13.30:
Lunch
13.30 – 15.00:
Thematic panels
15.00 – 15.30:
Coffee break
15.30 – 16.30:
Cross-theme regional workshops
16.30 – 17.30
Closing Plenary
Keynote address by Irene Khan, Director-General of the International Development
Law Organisation: “Stateless persons: Ensuring protection, finding solutions”
Poster presentations: Poland, Kygyzstan
Plenary Room*: Europe’s Roma
Seminar Room: Myanmar
Reading Room: Dominican Republic
Small Court Room *: Malaysia
Side Event (from 13.00): Re-Launch celebration and information meeting of the
European Network on Statelessness
Poster presentations (from 13.00): Saudi Arabia, Greece
Plenary Room*: Benchmarks and indicators for assessing nationality laws
Seminar Room: The impact and legacy of statelessness
Reading Room: Protecting the stateless from arbitrary detention
Small Court Room *: Gender discrimination and childhood statelessness
Plenary Room*: Europe
Seminar Room: Asia
Reading Room: Americas
Small Court Room *: Africa
Presentation of the 2014 UNHCR Awards for Statelessness Research by Prof. GerardRené de Groot, University of Maastricht
Presentation of the outcome document of the 2014 World Council of Churches
Consultation on Statelessness by Ms Seta Margossian-Hadeshian of the Middle East
Council of Churches
Conference summary and closing words by Mr Mark Manly (UNHCR) and Dr Laura
van Waas (Tilburg University)
Please note: The views expressed by presenters and panellists do not reflect the views of UNHCR or Tilburg University
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POSTER PRESENTATION DETAILS
Monday 15 September
Lunchtime: 13.30
1. Exploring Statelessness and Nationality in Iran – Jason Tucker
2. The Right to a Nationality and (Lack of) Responses to Statelessness in Ireland – Hilkka Bekker
3. Security and Stateless in Nepal – Dipendra Jha
Tuesday 16 September
Morning coffee break: 11.00
1. Statelessness in Madagascar: Future Challenges For a Developing Nation – Caroline McInerney
2. Spanish lesson learnt: theory and practice of a functional statelessness determination
procedure – Valeriia Cherednichenko
3. Implementing Human Rights Standards to ‘Thai-style’ Statelessness – I-Hsuan Liu (Claudia)
Lunchtime: 13.30
1. Starting from Scratch: Addressing Statelessness in Iraq – Karel Hendriks
2. Statelessness in Ukraine – Kateryna Moroz
3. A Boat Without Anchors: An Inquiry into the Legal Status of Ethnic Vietnamese Minority
Populations in Cambodia – Christoph Sperfeldt
Wednesday 17 September
Morning coffee break: 10.15
2. Statelessness in Poland – Dorota Pudzianowska
3. Confined by Borders, Excluded by State: Stateless in the borderlands of Kyrgyzstan – Elīna
Troščenko
Lunchtime: 13.00
1. Statelessness in Saudi Arabia – Nouf Abdulrahman Albluwi
2. Mapping and addressing statelessness in Greece – Eleni Takou
Area 1 = Africa / MENA
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Area 2 = Europe
Area 3 = Asia
(see map)
PLENARY ROUNDTABLE DETAILS
Monday 15 September
10.00 – 11.00
Roundtable on ‘Experiences of Statelessness’
The true impact of statelessness on people’s lives can be very difficult to understand without listening to
stateless people themselves. This plenary roundtable invites three stateless people, Railya, Alan and Dipu,
to share their personal experiences. The session is led by writer Adrian A. Gill who will be in conversation
with these participants and ask them how they became stateless, what impact this has had on their lives,
the obstacles they have faced in trying to resolve their situation and what they think needs to be done so
that they can acquire a nationality
Tuesday 16 September
14.00 – 15.30
Roundtable on ‘Statelessness and Empowerment’
This plenary roundtable invites four formerly stateless people, Srinuan, Hasan, Lara and Juliana, to share
their stories of how they were able to acquire a nationality. The session is led by UNHCR Goodwill
Ambassador Barbara Hendricks who will be in conversation with the participants and ask them what steps
they were able to take to resolve their situations, what obstacles they encountered, and what support they
received to overcome their statelessness.
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LUNCHTIME SIDE EVENT DETAILS
Tuesday 16 September: Celebrating the launch of new edited
collection Nationality and Statelessness under International Law
Lunchtime (from 13.30) – Seminar Room
Nationality and Statelessness under International Law is a brand new edited collection, published by
Cambridge University Press, with contributions written by leading experts in the field. The book is
expected to become a core tool for those studying or working on nationality and statelessness. Its
comprehensive coverage of the legal aspects of statelessness provides readers with an overview of the field
without requiring additional resources and the analysis of the relationship between nationality and
statelessness will help scholars of nationality law make the crossover to statelessness and understand core
questions relating to this specific phenomenon. Questions at the end of each chapter guide further
reflection and make the book an excellent teaching resource.
With its publication coinciding with the First Global Forum on Statelessness and many of its contributors
speaking at or participating in this event, what better opportunity to celebrate the launch of this new book.
During this side event, Prof. Linda Kerber will introduce the publication by offering a short review of the
book. One of the editors, Laura van Waas (Tilburg University), and one of the contributors, Mark Manly
(UNHCR) will then outline what readers can expect from the book in terms of content and uses.
Wednesday 17 September: Celebrating the re-launch of the
European Network on Statelessness as an independent charity
Lunchtime (from 13.30) – Seminar Room
This event will celebrate the re-launch of the European Network on Statelessness (ENS) as a Charitable
Incorporated Organisation based in the UK. Previously an initiative coordinated by Asylum Aid and its
other founding members, the Network has quickly grown, attracting 87 members in 33 European countries
since the launch of its website in June 2012. Its increased profile, activities and funding base
have necessitated and enabled ENS to revise its structure to now include a Secretariat, a Board of Trustees
and a newly enlarged Advisory Committee.
The event is intended to share information about the new structure and the Network's plans and priorities
for 2014/15 and beyond. In particular, it will seek to raise awareness and encourage support for the
current ENS campaign to protect stateless persons in Europe, including how civil society organisations can
sign an online petition and organise national-level activities during a coordinated day of pan-European
action on 14 October 2014. There will also be an opportunity to discuss and look ahead to ENS's next
planned campaign aimed at eradicating childhood statelessness in Europe. This is intended as an early
contribution as part of international efforts to support UNHCR's campaign to eradicate statelessness within
a decade, and ENS stands ready to work with other regional partners as part of this emerging global
coalition.
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PANEL AND WORKSHOP DETAILS
MONDAY 15 September
11.30 – 13.00
Plenary Room: The prevention of statelessness: contemporary tools and
challenges
Chaired by Professor René de Groot, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
Statelessness as a consequence of deprivation of nationality on grounds of national security and
terrorism
Alison Harvey BA (Oxon.) MA (Legal Director, Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association, United
Kingdom)
Laurie Fransman (Garden Court Chambers, United Kingdom)
The Current Status in Customary International Law of the Prohibition on Statelessness
Mr. William Thomas Worster (Lecturer International Law, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, the
Netherlands)
Status of Latvian non-citizens: Trying to compare apples to pears
Ms. Dr. Kristine Kruma (Judge of the Constitutional Court of Latvia; visiting lecturer at the Riga Graduate
School of Law, Latvia)
Seminar Room: Children’s experiences of statelessness
Chaired by Ayalew Getachew, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child
‘I don’t have a pass’: Exploring children’s perspectives on documents and belonging in Sabah,
Malaysian Borneo
Dr. Catherine Allerton (Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics,
United Kingdom)
A Pilot Study Exploring the Impact of Statelessness on Child Development and Family Relations
Dr. Maureen Lynch (Independent Humanitarian Advocate)
Left Behind: How Statelessness in the Dominican Republic Limits Children’s Access to Education
B. Shaw Drake (J.D Candidate, Researchers, Georgetown University Law Center, Human Rights Institute,
United States of America)
Kimberly Fetsick (J.D Candidate, Researchers, Georgetown University Law Center, Human Rights
Institute, United States of America)
Tabitha King (J.D Candidate, Researchers, Georgetown University Law Center, Human Rights Institute,
United States of America)
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Reading Room: Denationalisation as persecution
Chaired by Adriana van Dooijeweert, Netherlands Advisory Committee on
Migration Affairs
‘Stateless persons ought not to be ignored as refugees’
Prof. Hélène Lambert (University of Westminster)
Denationalization as Persecution in the United States
David C. Baluarte (Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Immigrant Rights Clinic
Washington & Lee University School of Law)
The establishment of denationalisation as ‘persecution’, for purposes of the 1951 Convention relating
to the Status of Refugees, in the United Kingdom: the extent of current recognition and subsisting
questions
Eric Fripp (Barrister at Lamb Building)
Small Court Room: Experiences of statelessness and displacement
Chaired by Monica Sanchez-Bermudez, Norwegian Refugee Council
Reconceptualising Statelessness: Palestinian and Kurdish narratives and experiences
Dr. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (Oxford University)
Statelessness from the Perspective of diasporic Palestinians
Dr. Nell Gabiam (Visiting Researcher, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University,
Washington DC, U.S.A)
Situation of Rohingya People in Burma
Tun Khin (Burmese Rohingya Organisation in the UK)
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MONDAY 15 September
16.00-18.00
Plenary Room: From the right to a nationality to naturalisation and
resettlement
Chaired by Inge Sturkenboom, Regional Statelessness Officer UNHCR Europe
From the right to a nationality to the right to be a citizen
Prof. Dr. Ernst Hirsch Ballin (Professor of Human Rights Law (university of Amsterdam) and Professor of
Dutch and European Constitutional Law (Tilburg University))
Durable solutions for stateless people: naturalisation and resettlement
Dr. Tamás Molnár (Head of unit, Ministry of Interior, Department of EU Cooperation, Unit for Migration;
Adjunct professor, Corvinus University of Budapest, Institute of International Studies)
Facilitated Naturalization of Stateless Persons
Mgr. Eva Mrekajova LL.M. (Intern and researcher, Vaša Prava BiH, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina;
UNHCR Research Award winner 2013)
Effective measures to solve the problem of statelessness
Mr. Dovrangelgdy Bayramov (Chairperson, State Migration Service of Turkmenistan)
Seminar Room: Birth registration and statelessness – regional
perspectives
Chaired by Selvi Supramaniam, UNICEF Malaysia
Birth Registration and Children’s Rights: A Complex Story
Dr. Jacqueline Gallinetti (Director of Research and Knowledge Management, Plan International, United
Kingdom)
Mary Lagaay (Researcher, Plan International, United Kingdom)
Birth Registration: Protecting Children and Preventing Statelessness in the Syrian Refugee Crisis
Mr. Amit Sen (Regional Protection Officer (statelessness), Middle East and North Africa Region, UNHCR)
Birth Registration, Legal Identity and the Prevention of Statelessness in Asia
Mr. Nicholas Oakeshott (Regional Protection Officer (statelessness), Regional Coordinator’s Office for
South East Asia, UNHCR)
Ms. Bongkot Napaumporn (Bangkok Legal Clinic, Thammasat University, Thailand)
Birth Registration and Statelessness in the Americas
Prof. Felipe Gonzalez (Rapporteur on Migrants, Refugees and Stateless Persons, Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights)
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Reading Room: Networking for change: the importance of collaboration
on statelessness
Chaired by Segma Asfaw Grosjean, World Council of Churches
Networking for change – the development of the European Network on Statelessness and
perspectives on developing other regional and global statelessness coalitions
Chris Nash (Coordinator, European Network on Statelessness – ENS –, United Kingdom)
Transnational and Interdisciplinary Collaboration on Statelessness: Case Studies in Asia
Prof. Lara Chen Tien-shi (Associate Professor, Waseda University; Representative, Stateless Network,
Japan)
Networking for Change: the importance of collaboration on statelessness
Mr. Timothy Parritt (Programme Officer, Oak Foundation)
Collaboration between European NHRIs on Statelessness
Debbie Kohner (Secretary General, European Network of National Human Rights Institutions – ENNHRI,
Belgium)
Small Court Room: Statelessness and paralegal projects
Chaired by Laura Bingham, Open Society Justice Initiative
Addressing Statelessness through Legal Empowerment: Community-Based Paralegal Pilots in Kenya
and Bangladesh
Ms. Laura Goodwin (Program Manager, Namati, Burma, Kenya and Bangladesh)
Mr. Khalid Hussain (Founder & Chief Executive, Council of Minorities, Bangladesh)
Mr. Mustafa Mahmoud Yousif (Project Administrator, Nubian Rights Forum, Kenya)
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TUESDAY 16 September
09.00-11.00
Plenary Room: The nexus between stateless persons, refugees &
international protection
Chaired by Professor Hélène Lambert, University of Westminster, United
Kingdom
Louis Henkin and the Shaping of the UN Conventions on Refugees and the Stateless
Professor Linda K. Kerber (May Brodbeck Professor in the Liberal Arts and Professor of History, Emerita,
Lecturer in law, University of Iowa, United States)
If Stateless, Displaced Inhabitants of Submerged Island Nations will be Refugees under Article 1(A)2 of
the 1951 Convention
J.D. Heather J. Alexander (Refugee Lawyer, United States of America)
Ph.D. Jonathan A. Simon (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Tulane University, United States of America)
Analysis of the Relationship between the Legal Frameworks for Stateless Persons and for Refugees:
Examining the Nationality Status of Indochinese Refugees and Available Solutions in Japan
Ms. Mai Kaneko-Iwase (Legal Associate, UNHCR, Japan)
Statelessness: An Emerging Paradigm of International Protection
Mr. Gábor Gyulai (Refugee Programme Coordinator, Hungarian Helsinki Committee; Chair of the
Steering Committee, European Network on Statelessness)
Seminar Room: Statelessness, the right to education, work and health,
and the nexus with human trafficking
Chaired by Lucy Hovil, International Refugee Rights Initiative, United Kingdom
Statelessness and the right to work
Nina van Egmond (PhD Candidate, VU University, The Netherlands)
Statelessness and Exploitation: (why) are stateless persons more vulnerable to human trafficking?
Dr. Conny Rijken (Associate Professor of European and International Law, Tilburg University, the
Netherlands)
Assessment of prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) and related health needs of stateless
populations in Côte d’Ivoire and the Dominican Republic
Dr. Alexander Vu (Director, Johns Hopkins University International Emergency and Public Health
Program, the United States)
Unwrapping statelessness: Identity, mental health and the ephemeral artwork of Christo and JeanneClaude
Mr Michael Hirsch (Visiting Assistant Professor, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Education for alll
Dato N. Siva Subramaniam (Special Implementation Task Force, Malaysia)
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Reading Room: Affecting Change: Exploring how and why action is taken
on statelessness
Chaired by Marc Krupanski, Open Society Justice Initiative
Recognizing Statelessness: Issue Emergence and the International Human Rights Agenda
Dr. Lindsey N. Kingston (Assistant Professor of International Human Rights, Webster University, United
States of America)
Vietnamese Naturalization for Stateless Persons in Viet Nam
Mrs. Ngo Thi Hong Loan (Officer, Department of External Relations of Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam)
Towards inclusive citizenship: Martians at home; a case of the Kenyan Somalis
Ms. Diana Gichengo (Program Advisor, Equality and Non-Discrimination, Kenya Human Rights
Commission)
Statelessness in Brazil – Challenges and Opportunities
Ms. Sara de Sousa Coutinho (Immigration Deputy Director, Ministry of Justice, Brazil)
Small Court Room: Statelessness and media
Chaired by Adrian Gill, writer and critic
Statelessness, Social Media and Political Agency. How Statelessness Entered the Political Public Space:
A Kuwait Perspective
Mohammad Al-Wuhaib (Kuwait Centre for Active Citizenship, Kuwait)
The Social Construction of Statelessness in Canada: A Study of National Media 1930-2011
Jocelyn Kane (Founding Director of the Canadian Centre for Statelessness, Toronto, Canada)
Why the media silence on statelessness?
Emma Batha (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
Nowhere People
Greg Constantine (Photographer and author)
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TUESDAY 16 September
11.30-13.00
Plenary Room: Birth registration and statelessness – national case
studies
Chaired by Jacqueline Gallinetti, Plan International
Lebanese Persons with no IDs
Rana Akoum (Judge, Litigation Body of the State, Ministry of Justice, Lebanon)
Birth Registration Denial in China
Ms. Stephanie Gordon (PhD candidate, University of Leicester, United Kingdom)
Resolving statelessness in Serbia through determination of nationality
Ms. Ivanka Kostic (Executive Director, NGO Praxis, Serbia)
Seminar Room: Exploring the utility of statelessness determination
Chaired by Chris Nash, European Network on Statelessness
Statelessness determination: What is it and why is it useful?
Gábor Gyulai (Refugee Programme Coordinator, Hungarian Helsinki Committee; Chair of the Steering
Committee, European Network on Statelessness)
Why Statelessness Matters 10 Years after al Kateb v Godwin [2004] HCA 37: An Australian Story
Ms. Susan Kennedy (PhD Candidate, University of Adelaide, South Australia; student of Juris Doctor,
University of Southern Queensland, Australia)
The challenges of nationality verification of the child in Japan
Ms. Yue Fu (Associate Professor, Ibaraki University; Committee member, Stateless Network, Japan)
Exploring the utility of statelessness determination
Ms. Stans Goudsmit (Commissioner, Netherlands Institute for Human Rights)
Reading Room: Addressing statelessness through foreign policy
Chaired by Tamás Molnár, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary
Statelessness in US foreign policy
Ms. Nicole Shephardson (Senior Policy Officer, Bureau on Population, Refugee and Migration, US
Department of State)
Statelessness and EU foreign policy
Mr. Garrett O’Brien (European External Action Service)
Statelessness in Europe: Causes, perceptions, ways to overcome
Mr. Boriss Cilevičs (MP, Latvia; Rapporteur on Statelessness, Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe)
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Small Court Room: Statelessness and surrogacy
Chaired by Adrian Berry, Garden Court Chambers, United Kingdom
International Commercial Surrogacy: A Recipe for Stateless Children?
Ms. Claire Achmad (PhD Candidate, Leiden Law School, the Netherlands; Barrister and Solicitor of the
High Court of New Zealand)
Transnational Surrogacy Induced Statelessness: The Legal Challenges.
Prof. Dr. Sanoj Rajan (Professor, School of Law, ITM University, India; Associate Faculty, Harvard
Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, MA, USA)
The “Parentage / Surrogacy Project” of the Hague Conference on Private International Law
Ms. Hannah Baker (Senior Legal Officer, the Hague Conference on Private International Law)
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TUESDAY 16 September
16.00-18.00
Plenary Room: Legal, policy and operational measures to resolve largescale statelessness situations
Chaired by Mark Manly, UNHCR Statelessness Section
Canada’s efforts to restore and extend citizenship to ‘lost Canadians’
Ms. Nicole Girard (Director General of Citizenship and Multiculturalism Policy Branch at Citizenship and
Immigration Canada)
Confirmation of nationality for persons of Indonesian descent in Southern Philippines
Mr. Rico Salcedo (Legal Officer, UNHCR Philippines)
Identification, prevention and reduction of situations of statelessness in Côte d’Ivoire
Mohamed Toure (UNHCR Côte d’Ivoire)
Documenting the Indian community – Building public confidence and trust
Dato N. Siva Subramaniam (Special Implementation Task Force, Malaysia)
Seminar Room: Addressing statelessness as a product of
irregular/forced migration
Chaired by Professor Peter Rodrigues, Leiden University, the Netherlands
Forced Migration: irregular migration and displacement across borders, loss of citizenship, and the
possibility of acquisition of nationality in host countries
Mr. Adrian Berry and Mr. Laurie Fransman (Garden Court Chambers; Immigration Law Practitioners’
Association, UK)
Contributing to the identification and prevention of statelessness through the delivery of
humanitarian programmes in displacement contexts
Ms. Monica Sanchez Bermudez (Global Adviser – Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA),
Norwegian Refugee Council, Head Office, Oslo)
Nationality, Migration and Statelessness in West Africa
Ms. Bronwen Manby (Independent consultant; visiting fellow, London School of Economics Centre for
the Study of Human Rights, United Kingdom)
The naturalization process in Tanzania: durable solution or path to statelessness?
Dr. Lucy Hovil (Senior Researcher, International Refugee Rights Initiative, United Kingdom)
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Reading Room: Statelessness and strategic litigation
Chaired by Kees Wouters, UNHCR Senior Refugee Law Advisor
Statelessness Litigation
Mr. Maxim Ferschtman (Senior Legal Adviser, Equality and Citizenship, Open Society Justice Initiative;
Steering Committee member, European Network on Statelessness)
Advocacy and Strategic Litigation on Statelessness in the Americas
Mr. Francisco Quintana (Program Director for the Andean, North-America and Caribbean Region of the
Centre for Justice and International Law – CEJIL – Office in Washington D.C., United States of America)
Litigating in the void – The role and relevance of strategic litigation in the fight against statelessness in
South Africa
Ms. Liesl Heila Muller (Lawyers for Human Rights)
Statelessness and strategic litigation: Reflections on Australia’s experience
Professor Kim Rubenstein (Director, Centre for International and Public Law, ANU College of Law; Public
Policy Fellow, The Australian National University)
Small Court Room: Teaching statelessness, including through university
law clinics
Chaired by Brad Blitz, Middlesex University
Teaching Statelessness: the Dutch Experiment
Dr. Jos van Schilt (Lecturer, OLV Lyceum Breda, The Netherlands)
Ms. Christina van Kuijck LLB (LLM and MA Student, Tilburg University and Netherlands Defence
Academy, The Netherlands)
A Statelessness Law Clinic in the United States
Mr. David Baluarte (Assistant Clinical Professor of Law; Director, Immigrant Rights Clinic, Washington &
Lee University of Law)
Representing stateless persons under the new SDP in the UK: a novel project at Liverpool Law Clinic
Ms. Frances Meyler (University of Liverpool, United Kingdom)
Title tbc
Ms. Helena Olea (Universidad Diego Portales)
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Wednesday 17 September
10.45-12.30
Plenary Room: Europe’s Roma
Chaired by Stéphanie Marsal, Office of the OSCE High Commissioner for
National Minorities
Stateless Roma in Serbia – an advocacy challenge
Mr. Davor Rako (Associate Protection officer, UNHCR Representation, Serbia)
Pathways to citizenship: Roma from ex-Yugoslavia in Italy
Mr. Riccardo Mattei (Council of Europe Support Team of the Special Representative of the Secretary
General for Roma Issues)
Taking Roma Statelessness to Court: the Work and Aspirations of the ERRC’s Legal Team
Mr. Adam Weiss (Legal Director, European Roma Rights Centre, Budapest)
Seminar Room: Myanmar
Chaired by Greg Constantine, Photographer
The Human Rights of Stateless Rohingya
Mr. Amal de Chickera (Senior Consultant on Statelessness, the Equal Rights Trust)
The Rohingya in Myanmar: Statelessness and Genocide in a Transitional State
Ms. Katherine G. Southwick (Research Associate, Centre for Asian Legal Studies, National University of
Singapore)
Situation of Rohingya People in Burma
Mr. Maung Tun Khin (President, Burmese Rohingya Organisation in the UK)
Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law and the nationality verification process
Ms. Chris Lewa
Reading Room: Dominican Republic
Chaired by Mark Manly, UNHCR Statelessness Section
Safeguarding migrants’ rights in a human-oriented perspective: the case of Haitian descendants in
Dominican Republic
Prof. Tatiana de Almeida Freitas R. Cardoso (Professor of International Law, UniRitter University, Porto
Alegre (RS), Brazil)
Ms. Nicole Cardoso Paganini (Researcher, UniSEB University, Riberião Preto (SP), Brazil)
From citizen to foreigner: Haitian civil society and its responses to the impact of the Constitutional
Court ruling of September 23rd 2013
Ms. Eve Hayes de Kalaf (Programmes Coordinator, the Haiti Support Group; PhD Candidate, Centre for
Citizenship and Rule of Law, Aberdeen University)
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The new Dominican policy towards migration
Ms Alejandra Liriano De La Cruz (Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dominican Republic)
Mr Josué Antinoe Fiallo Portorreal (Counselor of the Dominican Republic Embassy to the United
Kingdom)
A characterisation of civil society responses to the impact of Dominican Republic’s Constitutional
Court Ruling of September 23rd 2013 on Dominicans of Haitian Ancestry
Ms. Bridget Wooding (Director, Caribbean Migrants Observatory, Dominican Republic)
Small Court Room: Malaysia
Chaired by Ceren Yuksel, UNHCR Malaysia
Overview of statelessness in Malaysia and best practices by DHRRA Malaysia
Ms. Nanthini Ramalo (Executive Director, Development of Human Resources For Rural Areas (DHRRA)
Malaysia)
Sea-Gypsies in nature resort city: Between the devil and the deep blue sea
Sanen Marshall (Senior Lecturer, Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning,
University of Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia)
“12-12-12” and the Political Mobilisation of Stateless Malaysian-Indians
Amanda Cheong (Princeton University)
Children in Irregular Situations: Breaking the Cycle of Statelessness in Malaysia
Rodziana Mohamed Razali (PhD Candidate, National University of Malaysia)
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Wednesday 17 September
13.30-15.00
Plenary Room: Benchmarks and indicators for assessing nationality laws
Chaired by Anne Laakko, UNHCR Statelessness Section
Benchmarking Protection Against Statelessness in a Global Context: A Comparative Analysis of
Citizenship Laws in Europe and the Americas
Dr. Olivier Vonk (Marie Curie Fellow, Maastricht University, the Netherlands)
Prof. René de Groot (Professor of Comparative Law and Private International Law, Universities of
Maastricht, Aruba (the Netherlands) and Hasselt, Belgium)
ASEAN Nationality laws and the prevention and reduction of statelessness
Mr. Nicholas Oakeshott (Regional Protection Officer (statelessness), Regional Coordinator’s Office for
South East Asia, UNHCR)
Ms. Bongkot Napaumporn (Bangkok Legal Clinic, Thammasat University, Thailand)
Ms. Sangita Jaghai (Tilburg University Statelessness Programme)
Nationality laws in the Middle East and North Africa – trends and particularities
Dr. Laura van Waas (Senior Researcher and Manager of the Tilburg University Statelessness Programme)
Seminar Room: The impact and legacy of statelessness
Chaired by Julia Harrington-Reddy, Open Society Justice Initiative
Statelessness under Study: ‘Qayd il Dars’ Bedouin in Lebanon
Professor Dawn Chatty (University Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration; Director, Refugee
Studies Centre, University of Oxford)
Correcting the effects of statelessness
Professor Brad Blitz (Professor of International Politics and Deputy Dean, School of Law, Middlesex
University; Senior Fellow, Global Migration Centre, Graduate Institute Geneva)
Being Seen by the State: Statelessness, Visibility and Power in Thailand and Burma
Amanda Flaim PhD (Postdoctoral Fellow, Duke University, Sanford School of Public Policy and Social
Science Research Institute, United States of America)
David Feingold PhD (Director, Ophidian Research Institute, United States of America and Thailand;
Former Director (retired), Trafficking and HIV/AIDS Projects, UNESCO Bangkok, Thailand)
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Reading Room: Protecting the stateless from arbitrary detention
Chaired by Ariel Riva, UNHCR Protection Policy and Legal Advice Section
Protecting the stateless from arbitrary detention
Mr. Ben Lewis (Advocacy Coordinator, International Detention Coalition)
Mr. Amal DeChickera (Head of Statelessness and Nationality Projects, The Equal Rights Trust)
Ms. Liesl Heila Muller (Lawyers for Human Rights)
Arbitration Room: Gender discrimination and childhood statelessness
Chaired by Radha Govil, UNHCR Statelessness Section
‘I don’t belong to my mother’s country’. Stateless in your mother’s country
Ms. Zahra Albarazi (Researcher, Tilburg University Statelessness Programme)
Impact of law reforms on prevention and reduction of statelessness in Senegal
Mr. Moussa Habib Dione (Magistrate, Acting Director of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Senegal)
Statelessness among women and children in Nepal
Mohna Ansari (National Women’s Commission of Nepal)
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Wednesday 17 September
15.30-16.30
Plenary Room: Europe
Chaired by Diane Goodman, UNHCR Regional Bureau for Europe
Role of the EU in protecting stateless persons: proposal for legislative measures
Ms. Katja Swider (Researcher, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
The Protection of Stateless Persons: What is the Role for the European Union?
Ms. Giulia Bittoni (PhD Candidate, University of Burgundy (France) and University of Bologna (Italy))
Seminar Room: Asia
Chaired by Nick Oakeshott, UNHCR Statelessness Regional Officer
The protection of stateless persons in ASEAN: Challenges and opportunities
Ms. Yuyun Wahyuningrum (Senior Advisor on ASEAN and Human Rights, Human Rights Working Group,
Indonesia)
The protection of stateless persons in ASEAN: the role of APRRN
Helen Brunt (Programme Officer, Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network)
Reading Room: Americas
Chaired by Juan Ignacio Mondelli, UNHCR Statelessness Regional Officer
Problems of Documentation and Proof of Nationality in the Americas
Prof. Polly J. Price (Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of
America)
No Child is an Island – Seeking Solutions for Children at Risk of Statelessness in the Caribbean
Ms. Catherine Tobin (Senior Protection Associate, UNHCR, Regional Office Washington)
Small Court Room: Africa
Chaired by Emmanuelle Mitte, UNHCR Statelessness Regional Officer
Recent Developments in Africa
Ms. Bronwen Manby (Independent consultant; visiting fellow, London School of Economics Centre for
the Study of Human Rights, United Kingdom)
Releasing the right to birth registration to prevent statelessness in Africa
Mr. Ayalew Getachew Assefa (Legal Researcher, Secretariat of the ACERWC, African Union Commission,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
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* English-French interpretation is available for all sessions in the
Plenary Room and the Small Court Room
Details of roundtables, side events poster, panel & workshop
sessions follow from page 4
English-French interpretation is available for all sessions in
the Plenary Room and the Arbitration Suite
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