The Luxembourg Contact Point of the European Migration Network (LU EMN NCP) would like to draw your attention to its upcoming Conference on Statelessness, which will be held at the University of Luxembourg on Campus Kirchberg on 15 April 2016.
The 1954 Convention on the status of stateless persons defines a stateless person as ‘a person who is not considered a national by any State under the operation of its law’. At least 10 million people are stateless worldwide, an issue that is also relevant in Europe as 600.000 persons are concerned. Statelessness can have many different causes: ethnic discrimination, State succession but also irregular migration to name but a few.
Taking into account the rising prominence of the issue, the Council of the European Union, when adopting its conclusions on Statelessness on 4 December 2015, invited the European Commission to foster the exchange of good practices among Member States.
This Conference consists a step in that direction by considering the issue on multiple levels, European, international and national, and by inviting representatives from different backgrounds to join the discussion.
Confirmed speakers so far include Chris Nash, European Network on Statelessness, Denis Scuto, University of Luxembourg, Pascal Schumacher, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs – Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the EU, Bénédicte Souy, University of Luxembourg, Arnaud Ranzenberger, Etude Justlex and Laura van Waas, Institute of Statelessness and Inclusion. Also participating will be a speaker from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and representatives from Latvia and Estonia. Whereas Victor Weitzel, Special Counselor to the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, and Pascal Schumacher, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs – Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the EU, are chairing the national and the European Panels.
The conference will be held in English and French, interpretation will be provided.
When? Friday, 15 April 2016, 09.30 – 17.30.
Where? University of Luxembourg/ Campus Kirchberg/ 6 rue Coudenhove-Kalergi/ Luxembourg/Room Paul Feidert.
For more information consult the LU EMN NCP Facebook-page or subscribe to the LU EMN NCP newsletter by sending an email to emn@uni.lu.
Conference organiser: Linda Dionisio – linda.dionisio@uni.lu – (+352) 46 66 44 9757.