Activist, NGO and Artist Closed-Door Meetings ISI’s World Conference provided a unique opportunity for stakeholders from all over the world, who rarely get to meet in one place. We seized upon this occasion therefore to convene three closed-door meetings on the Saturday after the Conference: with activists, NGOs and artists. The meetings were held in an informal setting to create a safe space for an open discussion, including of potentially difficult or sensitive topics. The meetings were hugely beneficial to the global movement and allowed us to further strengthen our understanding of what is truly needed to sustainably move forward in an inclusive manner to address the global and ever rising problem of statelessness. Each group set its own agenda for discussion. Even though they were conducted separately, the three meetings complemented each other very well. The NGO meeting centred around three main themes, how to more effectively work with stateless activists, how to strengthen solidarity, and finally looking forwards to the, then, upcoming UN High Level Segment on statelessness – an event to mark the halfway point of the UNHCR #IBelong Campaign. The activists meanwhile discussed how they are portrayed in the NGO world, how NGOs interact with them and where they see room for improvement; how to stay connected with each other and support and strengthen each other’s work; the importance of self-care and finally, their wants and needs in terms of advocacy. The artists critically reflected on the integration of the arts within the conference space and spoke of the value of collaborating with NGOs and activists to co-create artwork on complex issues such as statelessness. After the individual meetings ended, the groups came together for lunch and a representative from each gave a short de-brief of what was discussed. Launch of the Inaugural Edition of the Statelessness and Citizenship Review At the Conference, ISI and the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at Melbourne Law School formally launched the inaugural edition of a new online journal: The Statelessness and Citizenship Review. This joint initiative is the first journal to be entirely dedicated to advancing the understanding of statelessness and related citizenship phenomena and challenges, helping to meet the growing demand for the exchanging of ideas and knowledge among scholars in the blossoming field of statelessness studies. With the full editorial team in attendance at the Conference, the journal’s joint editors-in-chief, Dr. Laura van Waas (ISI) and Prof. Michelle Foster (Peter McMullin Centre) led a lunchtime session celebrating the publication of the inaugural issue. The three scholars who contributed thought pieces for the Journal’s Critique and Comment section – and who were also all at the Conference - each gave a brief account of their article outlining their reflections on the current state of statelessness studies. The journal is published on a bi-annual basis and all articles are available open-access via the journal’s website at statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.com (details of the submission and review process can also be found there). In all, scholars from over 60 different universities and research institutes from across the world came to The Hague for the conference. Many also opted to participate in an impromptu session convened especially for academics, to exchange research and teaching experiences on statelessness and explore areas for collaboration. 35

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