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:
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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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