Responding to the Challenges of Statelessness in the MENA (Webinar)

This webinar, co-organised with Boston University School of Law's International Human Rights Clinic, explored research outputs from their project on the challenges of statelessness in the region. To find out more about the project click here: https://www.bu.edu/law/current-students/jd-student-resources/experiential-learning/clinics/international-human-rights-clinic/ The understanding and regulation of who is and who is not a member of each state, and why communities have been rendered stateless, has long been a regional challenge and touches on some of the most fundamental concepts regarding nationality in the Middle East and North Africa. The webinar will explore trends such as the link between statelessness and displacement, children's rights, civil documentation and discrimination, highlighting region-wide advocacy initiatives that can fill in knowledge gaps on this issue and address statelessness challenges. Susan Akram directs the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University's School of Law, in which she supervises students engaged in international advocacy in domestic, international, regional, and UN fora. Her research and publications focus on immigration, asylum, refugee, forced migration and human and civil rights issues, with an interest in the Middle East, the Arab, and Muslim world. Zahra Albarazi is a human rights lawyer and activist working in the field of statelessness. Zahra is co-director of the Syrian Legal Development Programme. Her particular interests are statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa and the impacts of statelessness and discriminatory nationality laws on women. Maysa Ayoub is the Associate Director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo. She has over 15 years of research and teaching experiences in the field of migration and refugee studies. She researched and published in the field on issues related to asylum policies, livelihoods of refugees, and public opinion and media attitude towards refugees and immigrants. Lina Abou Habib is the Interim Director of the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut. . Lina Abou-Habib was previously the Executive Director of Women’s Learning Partnership. She has worked extensively with the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and with several international and regional organisations in designing and managing programmes in the Middle East and North Africa region on issues related to gender and citizenship, economy, trade and gender and leadership. Bronwen Manby is a leading authority on nationality law and statelessness in Africa. She has written on a wide range of human rights issues in Africa, with particular interests in South Africa and Nigeria (especially the oil industry in the Niger Delta), and in continental developments in human rights law.