Equality and Citizenship | Open Society Institute

Citizenship Law in Africa
October 2009
Statelessness and discriminatory citizenship practices underlie and exacerbate tensions in many regions of Africa, according to this report released by the Open Society Justice Initiative and the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project.

About Equality & Citizenship
The Open Society Justice Initiative combats discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities, and promotes the right to citizenship.

Equal Access to Citizenship in the Dominican Republic
The Open Society Justice Initiative is working with advocates in the Dominican Republic to challenge systematic citizenship discrimination.

Ethnic Profiling in Europe
The Open Society Justice Initiative is documenting and challenging the use of ethnic profiling in Europe and advocating for a clear European norm that bans the practice.

Profiling Minorities: A Study of Stop-and-Search Practices in Paris
June 2009
Police officers in Paris consistently stop people on the basis of ethnicity and dress rather than on the basis of suspicious individual behavior, according to this Open Society Justice Initiative report.

Statelessness: What It Is and Why It Matters
Indira Goris, Julia Harrington, & Sebastian K�hn
April 1, 2009
Indira Goris, Julia Harrington, and Sebastian K�hn of the Open Society Justice Initiative explain why people without citizenship are some of the most vulnerable in the world, in this article from Forced Migration Review.

UN Human Rights Committee Finds Discrimination in Racial Profiling
September 2009
The UN Human Rights Committee became the first international tribunal to declare that police identity checks motivated by race or ethnicity run counter to the international human right to nondiscrimination, in a case filed by the Open Society Justice Initiative.

Williams v. Spain
This case before the UN Human Rights Committee involves a woman in Spain stopped by a police officer and told to produce identity documents solely because she is black.

Roma In Italy
The Open Society Justice Initiative is working to challenge an emergency decree issued by the Italian government in May 2008 requiring the registration of all Roma in that country.