collective

de:border // migration justice collective (registered as a non-profit Stichting in the Netherlands) is a group of researchers, practitioners and scholar-activists*, mobilising with/in and against law to resist and counter the violence of physical and other borders*, including those embedded in and reproduced by legal systems. We pursue accountability and transformation of the systems of oppression that produce global immobility and rightlessness by engaging in political and legal interventions, collaborative action-research and embodied colearning. Centring movement law/yering*, critical and trauma-informed practice*, and (trans)feminist leadership*, we are committed to pursuing healing, decolonial and transformative justice and reparations* for the systems that deny the freedom of, and dignity in, movement.

Established in 2022, some of de:border’s interventions date back to 2018, and were commenced while some of us were members of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN).

* Defined in glossary.

founding members

Valentina Azarova (PhD)

Co-Founder, Emergent Justice Collective; Co-Convenor of the Research Area ‘Intersectionality, Abolition, and Transformative Justice’, Feminist Autonomous Centre for research; External Affiliate, (B)Order(s): Centre for the Legal Study of Borders and Migration, Queen Mary University of London

Valentina (they/she) is a researcher and practitioner centring movement law/yering, transformative justice and trauma-informed responses to international and interpersonal violence. They have researched and published on international law in the Palestine/Israel context, the laws of violence and the violence of law, and legal mobilisation in social justice struggles. They are part of antimilitarist, decolonial reparations, and no-borders movements and struggles. Valentina co-founded and co-directed the Al-Quds Bard Human Rights Program at Al-Quds University (2009-2013), taught on the MA in Human Rights and Democracy at Birzeit University (2013-2015), and since held research and teaching posts at academic institutions in Lebanon, Turkey, Germany, and the United Kingdom. They hold a PhD in law from the University of Galway’s Irish Centre for Human Rights.

Valentina is currently co-lead of the collective.
v.azarova@debordercollective.org

Noemi Magugliani (PhD)

Lecturer in Law, University of Kent; Research Leader, British Institute for International and Comparative Law; Senior Legal Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children

Noemi (they/them) is a researcher and practitioner focussing on border violence, freedom of movement, and queer theory. Their research centres critical approaches to international law, border- and gender studies, with a focus on the violence(s) created through and with/in the law. Noemi teaches A Critical Introduction to Law and Immigration Law at the University of Kent, and they conduct research on human trafficking and modern slavery at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL). They hold a PhD in law from the University of Galway’s Irish Centre for Human Rights, where they have taught International Migration Law, International Refugee Law, and European Migration Law (2018-2022).

Noemi is currently co-lead of the collective.
n.magugliani@debordercollective.org

Violeta Moreno-Lax (PhD)

Professor of Migration Law, Queen Mary University of London; Founder and Inaugural Director, (B)Order(s): Centre for the Legal Study of Borders and Migration

Violeta (she/her) is Full Professor of Law at Queen Mary University of London, specialising in international and EU law at the intersection with migration, border violence, and security. She is currently a Ramón y Cajal Senior Research Fellow at the Universitat de Barcelona. Violeta is the founder of the Immigration Law programme and founder and director of (B)OrderS, the Centre for the Study of Borders, Migration and Law. Violeta also serves as Co-Chair of The European Law Observatory; as a member of the Advisory Board of Equal Rights Beyond Borders; as a member of the Steering Committee of the Migration and Law Network, and has been Senior Research Associate of the Refugee Law Initiative of the University of London since 2018.

Amanda Danson Brown

Doctoral Researcher, Queen Mary University of London

Amanda (she/her) is an international legal practitioner and a doctoral researcher in Law at Queen Mary University of London. Her professional and academic work focuses on migration, border violence, human rights, racial discrimination, and maritime law. She has worked with various organisations on cases and projects relating to immigration and asylum services, civil search and rescue at sea, statelessness and citizenship, and human rights accountability in global migration governance. Amanda received her Juris Doctor degree from UCLA School of Law. She completed an LLM in International and European Legal Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and also holds an MSc from the Social Policy Department of the London School of Economics and a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from Colgate University.

Niamh Keady-Tabbal (PhD)

Researcher

Niamh (she/her) is a researcher whose work focuses on EU migration policy, access to asylum and border violence at the ‘external’ borders of the EU, particularly at Greece’s maritime border. Niamh has lectured in human rights, refugee and migration law at the University of Galway and as a Teaching Fellow in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at Trinity College Dublin. She was a Visiting Graduate Researcher at UCLA School of Law, where she was hosted by the Centre for Immigration Law and Policy. Niamh holds a PhD in Law from the University of Galway. She also holds an LLM in Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights, University of Galway, and a BA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies with French from Trinity College Dublin.

board

Ariadne Papagapitos

Impact Director, Lighthouse Reports

Ariadne has 15 years of experience building programs on conflict resolution and human rights in complex contexts for philanthropic institutions and nonprofits. She served as the director of the Peacebuilding program at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Co-Founder and New Markets Director at Localized, a startup closing the employment gap for young people in developing markets.

Jelia Sané

Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers

Jelia specialises in refugee and international law, with a focus on child rights. She has extensive experience representing vulnerable claimants, including unaccompanied minors and victims of trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence, in protection claims in the UK. Internationally, Jelia acts for victims of international crimes and serious human rights abuses before international bodies, including the International Criminal Court and the Inter-American Commission.

Lydia de Leeuw

Researcher, Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)

Lydia is a Dutch criminologist and jurist specialized in corporate accountability for human rights violations and environmental impacts. She leads SOMO’s strategic litigation work. As chairwoman of Kifaia Foundation, she is an active advocate for justice in Palestine. She is also a supervisory board member of the international branch of political party BIJ1.

advisory board

Stefanos Levidis

Advanced Researcher, Forensic Architecture

Stefanos is an architect and spatial investigator. He is an Advanced Researcher at Forensic Architecture/Forensis, where he oversees the agencies’ work on border violence and migration. He holds a PhD from the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths, titled ‘Border Natures’, interrogating the entanglement of border defence strategies and the natural environment at the external borders of the EU.

Susan M. Akram

Clinical Professor of Law, Boston University

Susan directs Boston University (BU) Law’s International Human Rights Clinic, in which she supervises students engaged in international advocacy in domestic, international, regional, and UN fora. She teaches or has taught courses in International Human Rights, Refugee and Migration law, US Immigration law and Palestinian Refugees under International Law. 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.

Andreina De Leo

Doctoral Researcher in Migration Law, Maastricht University

Andreina is a researcher within the LIMES doctoral programme’s project “EU’s Shifting Borders – Scrutinizing Externalization of Migration Management and International Protection Responsibilities”. She is based at the Department of International and European Law of the Faculty of Law. Her research focuses on the role of EU funding in the external dimension of EU asylum and migration policies. She is a member of the Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI), was a Junior Policy Analyst in the European Migration and Diversity Programme with the European Policy Centre, and has been involved in supporting and advising migrant solidarity groups and policy-makers on migration at the national and EU level.