We are excited to announce that we have partnered with Asylum Aid to bring you a new series of training workshops on Statelessness-focused Country of Origin Information (COI). 

These co-delivered workshops are free of charge and will consist of the following four sessions:

Workshop 1: Formulating COI research questions and identifying sources: Monday, 2nd October  10:00am - 12:00pm (CET)  (09:00am-11:00am(GMT))- Asylum Aid & Asylos 

[In this session, you will gain an understanding of the legal context and principles related to statelessness before learning how to formulate statelessness-specific COI research questions, pinpoint relevant sources, and evaluate these sources. Additionally, you'll have the opportunity to try it yourself through hands-on exercises.]

Workshop 2: Terminology and Including the voices of stateless people: Monday, 9th October 10:00am - 12:00pm (CET) (09:00am-11:00am(GMT))- Asylos 

[This workshop will guide you in understanding relevant terminology and phrases used in COI, as well as teach you how to include firsthand accounts into your research. Additionally, you'll have the opportunity to try it yourself through hands-on exercises.]

Workshop 3: Research and Presenting COI results: Monday, 16th October 10:00am - 12:00pm (CET)  (09:00am-11:00am(GMT)) - Asylos 

[In this workshop you will gain hands-on experience in conducting COI research and learn how to present your findings applying the five main quality criteria for COI research]

Workshop 4: Country Experts and Asylos’ services: Monday, 23rd October 10:00am - 12:00pm (CET)  (09:00am-11:00am(GMT)) - Asylum Aid & Asylos 

[In this concluding workshop, we'll begin by summarising the key takeaways from all the sessions. Following that, you'll learn about the role of country experts, including when to consult them or other professionals with relevant expertise. Additionally, you'll get acquainted with how to navigate Asylos' case-specific database and how to submit your own custom request.]

Trainers will include:

Fatima Ali, Programme Manager, Asylos 

Emily Wilbourn, Programme Manager, Asylos 

Djamilla Hitchins, Statelessness Project Supervisor, Asylum Aid

Walaa Kayyal, Researcher and member of Asylos Statelessness Project Steering Committee 

Register now

We recommend signing up for all the sessions since they are designed to build on each other. However, you're welcome to select only the specific sessions you're interested in attending.

These trainings are aimed at legal representatives and those providing Country-of-origin information (COI) support in the UK and beyond.

The webinars include some interactive activities, and we make use of whiteboard tools such as Miro, therefore we recommend you familiarise yourself with Miro before attending a session. Please see this How To Use Miro For Beginners | Miro Tutorial 2023 

Statelessness-focused training workshops

In these thematic training workshops, we will concentrate on statelessness in the context of international protection claims for stateless persons and statelessness-focused country of origin information (COI). The workshops will familiarise COI researchers with concepts and understandings of statelessness, including a review of the legal context for international protection claims for statelessness applications and what this means for conducting statelessness-focused COI.

Drawing on principles for conducting COI research for stateless individuals, we will collaboratively work to develop a research strategy based on a case study. Practical exercises will concentrate on identifying key issues and research topics, adopting an intersectional approach. We will work on formulating research questions, identifying relevant sources,  using appropriate terminology, and incorporating the voices of people with lived experiences of statelessness in COI research.

These insightful sessions will equip participants with a deep understanding of the complexities and challenges surrounding statelessness, fostering an informed and sensitive approach to research and advocacy efforts in this area.

All workshops will take place on Zoom. As a participant of any workshop, you will be asked to read our digital training handbook ahead of the session. Once the final session is concluded, you will be sent a specialised statelessness-focused handbook. 

The Zoom link will be sent to you the day before the workshop you registered for. 

Registration for these workshops is on a first come first served basis. If you register for one or more workshops but for whatever reason cannot eventually attend, we require you to let us know by emailing Fatima Ali so that we can allocate your spot to someone else.

We look forward to welcoming you to the workshops!