Jyothi Kanics

Since 1995 Jyothi Kanics has been active with non-governmental and international organisations including UNICEF and Save the Children advocating for the rights of vulnerable migrants such as separated children, trafficked persons, undocumented migrants and stateless persons. She is an active member of the European Network on Statelessness advising on its #StatelessKids campaign. Her work experience includes policy development and advocacy work as well as direct case work with asylum seeking children and age disputed individuals.

From 2000-2004 she served as the Head of the Anti-Trafficking Unit at the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. From 2004-2007 She worked with Save the Children as the Programme Manager of the Separated Children in Europe Programme.

She then worked with the Irish Refugee Council as Separated Children’s Officer. From August 2009 to September 2014 she worked with UNICEF as an Advocacy and Policy Specialist. Jyothi completed her undergraduate degrees in Russian & East European Studies and Russian Language & Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993. She has a Masters in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford and a Masters in International Relations from Yale University. She is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lucerne within the National Centre of Competence in Research, NCCR-on the Move, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Her PhD research is focused on undocumented children’s right to be heard and to have their best interests considered in hardship provisions in Switzerland.