on where they discussed legal strategy
and challenges. I was able to form
working relationships that will allow
for further learnings and future
collaborations to the benefit of the
Australian context.
I was also invited to present on the
Australian Stateless Legal Clinic which
allowed me to raise awareness about
the issue in Australia and stimulate
productive
dialogue
amongst
participants about similarities and
differences between approaches to
statelessness in the two countries.
Participants of the Stateless Legal Clinics Workshop at Roma Tre
University, Rome, September 2023.
Similarly to the Stateless Legal Clinic in
Australia, the Italian clinics were developed to help address the fact that there are very few
projects that address statelessness, including in a university setting. As is also the case in Australia,
the Italian clinics seek to raise awareness of the issue amongst law students and future generations
as well as provide critical legal education and aid to members of the stateless community.
Students of the Italian Stateless Legal Clinics reported having a very positive experience,
highlighting the practical skills they were able to develop and the ability to work with stateless
people directly. One student reported that the clinic has allowed her to understand how important
empathy was when providing legal assistance to stateless people, noting ‘you can’t learn that from
a textbook.’
Students also reported being struck by the sheer challenges their stateless clients faced when
seeking to access the basic rights and entitlements that they themselves took for granted. One
student recalled assisting a stateless mother apply for a driver’s licence, something she herself had
never considered difficult but was extremely hard for her client to navigate due to lack of
documentation and language barriers.
The Italian student experience mirrored the experience of many Australian students I have
supervised in the Stateless Legal Clinic, who also emphasise the transformative impact of working
directly with stateless people in the community.
59