Legal Seminar 2023

Laurence Meyer  has a master in europaen comparative  public law from La Sorbonne university (Paris). She is a jurist and currently works as Racial and Social Justice Lead at Digital Freedom Fund. She co-leads the “Decolonising the digital rights field” process, jointly with EDRi and leads the “Digital Rights for All” initiative. She is part of the magazine AssiégéEs, and co-founder of the Ẅ XOOL (wou Rol) film festival dedicated to Afro-descendant women and non-binary filmmakers in France.  Laurence works on issues of digital rights and the notion of race in law and has written articles on these topics for French and German newspapers. She speaks French, English and German. She is based in Berlin.

Ulrich Stege is a Faculty Member and Director of the IUC Clinical Legal Education Program. In addition to his role at the IUC, he is a practising lawyer and member of the Italian and German bars. Since 2019, he is collaborating with the Italian Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and its MEDEA project related to migrants’ rights on internal EU borders. He is Co-President of the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE), a founding member and Executive Secretary of the European Network for Clinical Education (ENCLE), a board member of the Italian Law Clinic Network, and member of the Francophone Network of Legal Clinics, ASGI and the Migration Law Network.

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Chloé Berthélémy is Senior Policy Advisor at European Digital Rights (EDRi) where she leads the advocacy work on state surveillance, law enforcement and data protection issues. EDRi is a network of 50+ NGOs and experts that promote and defend human rights in the digital age.

Silvia Carta is an advocacy officer at PICUM, focusing on migration enforcement policies. She previously worked in a Brussels-based think tank, at the European Parliament. She has a background in International Relations and Human Rights Governance, and she holds an LL.M. in EU Law.

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Laure is a lawyer based in Brussels, where she is currently working as a researcher (Phd) and lecturer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in criminology. She also acts as a volunteer prison monitor in a large pre-trial detention prison in Brussels, and since 2020 heads up the appeals committee that adjudicates on complaints from detained people against the prison administration. Previously, Laure was Legal Director at the EU office of an NGO advocating for criminal justice reform.

Sara Traylor carries out social work, activism and research on migration-related topics. She is now focusing on the criminalization of people on the move in Italy, specifically those accused of facilitation of irregular migration. She is part of Watch the Med – Alarm Phone and the Captain Support Network, and she is currently working with the From Sea to Prison project with the Palermo-based association Arci Porco Rosso, as part of a working group that seeks to provide socio-legal support to criminalized people, in and outside prison. The groups and networks in which she is active aim to increase knowledge and awareness on the topic of criminalization of people on the move, in Italy and beyond. She graduated in 2020 from the interdisciplinary master’s “Advanced Migration Studies (AMIS)” at University of Copenhagen with a thesis on strategic litigation at international courts for violations occurring at the European borders.

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Selma Benkhelifa has been a lawyer specialising in migration law in Brussels since 2001. She is also a feminist and anti-racist activist. She has supported numerous collective actions by migrants to obtain their rights: occupations, demonstrations, hunger strikes, arrests, etc. The law is never set in stone; it is the result of a balance of power that we can reverse.

Lamprini Gyftokosta was born and raised in a small town of Epirus in Greece. Her educational background is legal, with studies in Greece and the UK. For more than a decade, she has been working in different sectors in both Belgium and Greece, including a lobbying federation, a technology platform, and a consulting firm. Her focus has been on issues related to data protection and privacy, cybersecurity, health, and anti-discrimination. What is more, she strongly believes that knowledge is power and in her new role as a Director on AI and Human Rights at Homo Digitalis, she wants to engage into discussions about how technological developments and regulatory initiatives impact citizens rights and everyday lives. And make this information accessible to more people, giving them the right tools to better understand the world we live in and make better informed decisions.

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Adla has more than 20 years experience in issues of migrant communities, migration, the fight against racism and xenophobia at national and European level,  she was representing the countries of Southern Europe in the Board of the European Network Against Racism and Xenophobia (ENAR) and she is currently a member of the steering group of Equinox-Initiative for social justice. She is a member of the Sudanese Community in Greece and the director of the Greek Forum of Migrants.

Ting is coordinator (non-binary person) of the organisation ‘Roses d’Acier’ (Roses of Steel) since 2019, and a volunteer for it since 2014. Created in 2014, the community organisation, Roses d’Acier, is self-managed by Chinese migrant women in precarious situations and sex workers in France. The organisation is in contact with more than 400 women. The vast majority do not speak French, are in an irregular situation in France and their families remain in China. Migration projects are mainly organized around the economy and work.”

Parvin Abkhoudarestani is a psychologist, feminist and activist for refugee rights. She was born in Iran, studied at Central Tehran University IAUCTB and lived under the fascist Islamic regime for 25 years. She fled in 2017 and sought asylum in Germany. In 2022 she filed a legal complaint against Greece for the multiple, violent pushbacks she was subjected to at the Greek/Turkish border (with the support of ECCHR). She works as a child psychologist.

Laure Palun’s interest in the protection of human rights began at University, from which she graduated with two masters degrees in law and economics. She started to work in an association that provides legal support to migrants locked up in detention centres. Outraged by the treatment of migrants in France and Europe, she quickly joined Anafé (National Association of Border Assistance for Foreigners), first as a volunteer visitor in the waiting area. Since 2015, she has been an employee of Anafé, an association she has been managing since 2018. She campaigns for the strengthening of the fundamental role that civil society must play in the necessary improvement of the reception of migrants in France and in Europe.

Dr Monish Bhatia is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York. He has published several articles and book chapters, and is the co- editor of numerous books and journal issues including Media, Crime, and Racism (Palgrave, 2018), Critical Engagements with Borders, Racisms and State Violence (Critical Criminology, 2021), Migration, Vulnerability, and Violence (International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2020), Race, Mental Health and State Violence (Race & Class, 2021), and Racism, Violence, and Harm: Ideology, Media and Resistance (Palgrave, 2023/forthcoming). In 2021, Monish won an award from the Hate Crime Network (part of the British Criminology Society) for his article titled Permission to be Cruel: Street Level Bureaucrats and Harms Against People Seeking Asylum (Critical Criminology, 2020). Monish continues to work with various third-sector, grassroots, and campaigning organisations.

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Jennifer Kamau is the Spokesperson and Co founder of International Women* Space, an Organisation that was founded in 2012 from the Oranienplatz Movement. IWS is an Anti-Racist, Anti Capitalist and anti Colonial Feminist Organization that consists of Refugees and Migrant Women. In 2019 she initiated the Break Isolation Group (BIG) a Self organised Working group consisting of only Refugee Women which enables them to organise against Isolation and the Racist Asylum Process. She is also offering Political Tours with Querstadtein which is a platform for Refugees and Homeless people to share with interested persons about places in the city that they identify with. She is also coordinating a Project with Eoto and Frieda Frauen Zentrum to support BiPoC Community fleeing from war in Ukraine and is also in the Senate`s Commission against anti Black Racism that is a part of the UN Decade of People of African Descent.