Wednesday, 15 October 2014

From Statelessness Programme to Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion

After three rewarding, enjoyable and successful years building up an international portfolio of research, training and outreach work on statelessness within the Statelessness Programme at Tilburg Law School, we are pleased to announce that from the 1st of January 2015, we will continue our work under the flag of the newly established Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion. The Institute is an independent non-profit organisation that aims to lead an integrated, inter-disciplinary response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion. Along with the Statelessness Programme’s Laura van Waas and Zahra Albarazi, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion is also co-founded by Amal de Chickera who has been working on statelessness for the Equal Rights Trust in London. The threefold mission of the Institute is to be:

-          An Expert source of impartial, trusted and interdisciplinary research, analysis, information and education on statelessness and disenfranchisement around the world;
-          A Partner who builds connections across disciplines between people concerned about and/or affected by statelessness and disenfranchisement; and
-          A Catalyst for challenging perceptions on statelessness, strengthening protection and forging inclusion and participation.

What will change?
The Statelessness Programme will no longer continue when the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion becomes operational on the 1st of January. This means that if you want to continue to follow our work or be involved in our activities, you will have to visit the Institute’s own website: www.InstituteSI.org. If you currently receive the Statelessness Programme newsletter, you will automatically be signed up for the Institute’s mailing list but the new updates will come with a new look and new logo. Our new and more ambitious mission, as well as the involvement of co-founder Amal de Chickera, means that we will strengthen and expand our work so that we can strive to form an effective bridge between academia and civil society / UN / policymakers, but also help new actors to get involved in exploring and finding solutions to statelessness. Our independence will allow us to be more visible, flexible and able to respond to the needs of those working to address statelessness around the world.

What will not change?
Our dedication to the issue of statelessness remains unchanged and this will continue to be the central focus of our work. We will continue to be affiliated with Tilburg University and be present on campus: we will still teach the undergraduate elective ‘Nationality, Statelessness and Human Rights’ and be available for the supervision of bachelor and masters dissertations, as well as to offer student internships when we can. We will continue to offer our statelessness summer and regional courses to professionals and academics working in this field. We will continue to work within and support the efforts of the European Network on Statelessness to improve the response to statelessness within Europe. We will continue to play a role in the International Campaign to End Gender Discriminatory Nationality Laws. And, perhaps most importantly, we will continue to be a source of trusted and impartial research and analysis on statelessness and related issues.

What’s next?

The Institute is currently engaged in a process of consultation, strategic planning and fund-raising, including through a crowd-funding campaign, to cover its start-up costs. To learn more about the Institute, visit its website: www.institutesi.org and its campaign page: http://bit.ly/1D9j7ey. You can support us by spreading the word about the Institute within your networks and sharing our campaign page through social media. 

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