10 1 A CATALYST FOR ACTION: WORKING TO ADDRESS STATELESSNESS IN EUROPE ANNUAL REPORT 2017 1 11 I feel bad because I’m from here, but they are not giving me citizenship. I feel I don’t belong here. God forbid if I die, they will not bury me because I do not have documents… This is my biggest burden. I am born here, but I don’t have a nationality. NADIJA, A ROMANI WOMAN LIVING IN MACEDONIA OUR WORK ON THE GROUND fundamental rights in many cases: they may not be able to access healthcare, including reproductive healthcare for women, education, employment opportunities, property rights and their freedom of movement may be restricted. This is how Nadija describes what it’s like to live without a nationality. Nadija is 50 years old. She was born and has lived her whole life in Macedonia, but has never had any identity documents. She was told that she had to be registered first to get Macedonian nationality. The simplest way to do this was by securing a foreigner’s ID through her husband. But he didn’t want to help her, and she could not afford to pay the fees. After their marriage broke down, Nadija went to MYLA to ask for advice. MYLA’s lawyers are now helping her to secure an ID and eventually have her Macedonian nationality recognised. Many more stories like Nadija’s surfaced during our research in the Western Balkans and Ukraine, and are what inspired our partnership work to address Roma statelessness in the region. Set up in 2016, the #RomaBelong project is a joint initiative by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) and the European Network on Statelessness, and six national partners including the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA). The project findings are a wakeup call to governments and institutions in the region and further afield to focus much-needed attention on statelessness among Roma communities. Around the world, minorities are at particular risk of statelessness. In fact, two-thirds of the world’s stateless are minorities. Despite being nationals under the letter of the law, many Roma struggle for years to prove their links to their home country due to discrimination, marginalisation and lack of access to justice. Latest estimates by MYLA put the number of Roma at risk of statelessness in Macedonia at over 450. Many thousands more in the region lack birth certificates or any other documents to prove their citizenship. As a consequence, every day women, men and children face numerous difficulties in their lives amounting to denial of their ENS has a small but dedicated secretariat based at our London office, tasked with coordination and development of the Network. We operate a controlled growth and engagement strategy by maintaining an agile structure and a philosophy of building capacity and, wherever possible, channelling resources through our members across 40 European countries. STAFF #ROMABELONG – TACKLING ROMA STATELESSNESS CO-WRITTEN BY: ZORAN DRANGOVSKI, PRESIDENT OF MACEDONIAN YOUNG LAWYERS ASSOCIATION & NINA MURRAY, ENS HEAD OF POLICY & RESEARCH OUR STAFF, TRUSTEES & ADVISORY COMMITTEE To address this, civil society, governments and UNHCR are now working to simplify civil registration procedures, fill gaps in legislation, and raise awareness about the issues. For the last seven years in Macedonia, MYLA has been spearheading a campaign focused on reducing the number of stateless Roma through awareness raising, coalition building, advocacy and provision of legal and financial assistance to people without nationality. As a result of joint work on the issue, the Government has now launched a sixmonth public call to register people who lack a birth certificate, which should go a long way in reducing the number of Roma who are unable to prove their nationality. Such efforts show that it is possible to tackle statelessness with a proactive approach. But, much more work still needs to be done. ENS will continue to focus on Roma statelessness in 2018 and beyond, working in partnership with its members to achieve change. Key to this will be to develop a shared understanding of the issues, which cannot be done without listening to Roma voices and ensuring that Roma communities are at the heart of shaping and implementing change. CHRIS NASH – Director Chris is the Director and co-founder of ENS. He has worked in the refugee and migration field for over 20 years, initially as an asylum lawyer and then at the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (Head of Policy & Advocacy), the Refugee Council of Australia (National Policy Director), Amnesty International (Head of Refugee & Migrant Rights Team) and Asylum Aid (International Protection Policy Coordinator). He is a sought-after speaker and has written widely on asylum, migration and statelessness. NINA MURRAY – Head of Policy & Research Nina joined ENS in March 2017. She holds an MA in Migration Studies and a BA in Modern Iberian and Latin American Regional Studies. She previously worked at Scottish Refugee Council for over six years, and has extensive experience undertaking and leading research, policy development and advocacy with a focus on gender and refugee rights. She has also worked as a researcher at What Works Scotland, based at the University of Glasgow, and in a range of other professional and voluntary roles in the human rights field. JAN BRULC – Head of Communications Jan joined ENS in November 2015 to run its communications and campaigns work. He holds an MA in Politics. Previously, Jan worked for the Migrants’ Rights Network and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, managing communications work from their London and Brussels offices. He also worked as a lead web developer at Small Axe and at the European Medicine Agency. ELIZABETH ODETTE – Operations Manager Elizabeth joined ENS in November 2015 as operations manager responsible for managing HR, finance, governance and administration. Before joining ENS Elizabeth worked in a broad range of finance and business administration roles in the charity sector for over 10 years. Her interests include working with young people in various projects with which she is involved. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OUR VOLUNTEERS We owe a big thank you to the tireless work of our volunteers – Tsedön Khangsar and Zvjedana Mileta – who contributed their time, energy and creativity to helping us achieve our objectives in 2017. ADVISORY COMMITTEE ENS is a membership organisation. This gives us a strength beyond our staff and trustees, and a reach across Europe. Our Secretariat receives ongoing support from the Advisory Committee members, who regularly lead on delivering training and research, contributing to strategic planning and representing the organisation at external events across Europe. ENS has an active Board of Trustees currently made up of six members, responsible for overseeing the governance of the charity. They are: •• STEFANIE GRANT – An experienced human rights lawyer and expert, currently working as a consultant •• GÁBOR GYULAI – Refugee Programme Manager at the Hungarian Helsinki Committee •• IVANKA KOSTIC – Founder and Executive Director of Praxis •• ALLAN LEAS (Chair) – An experienced human rights professional, formerly ECRE Secretary General and currently working as a consultant •• JAMES WOODESON (Treasurer) – Secretary General of the British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce •• MAURICE WREN – Chief Executive of the Refugee Council