Janet Carter Anand is an academic, educator and practitioner in social work. Currently a Professor in International Social Work, UEF, she has researched and published on global mindedness, cultural diversity, human rights and ageing and migration and quality of life. Janet is affiliated with the UEF Centre for Borders, Mobilities and Cultural Encounters, leads the IAASW Baltic Nordic Regional Resource Centre and is Editor of the Journal of Nordic Social Work Research and course director Sosnet Global Perspectives in Social Work of a new YUFE program on Global Migration and European Identity.

Doctoral researcher at Tampere University on Decolonizing Understanding of Gender among Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, and Jordan.

Hermann Aubié is a social scientist/east asianist with interest and expertise in human rights, civil society, as well as social and human development issues. He has lived and worked in mainland China for five years and for more than ten years in various Western countries.

I am a doctoral researcher in media studies at Tampere University, Finland, focusing on disinformation, gamification, hate infrastructures, mediatized memories, and political violence. I lead the social media research team for the Luce Foundation-funded project on Muslims in India under Hindu majoritarianism, alongside professors from Science Po, Princeton, and Columbia University. Previously, I was a fellow at Oxford’s Reuters Institute and the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. I have over 20 years of experience as an investigative journalist, covering environmental justice, human rights, and conflicts in the Indian subcontinent, earning multiple awards, including the Kurt Schork Memorial Award. I have taught journalism at various Indian universities, am a certified media literacy trainer, and have conducted over 40 training sessions in India and Bangladesh. My work has been featured in major international media, and I was formerly India editor of AFP's fact-checking division.

Alex is a PhD student in social philosophy at Tampere University and an associate director - social specialist at Wardell Armstrong International. His research involves introducing critical theory approaches (e.g., Recognition theory, decolonial and critical gender theories), to implement novel practices in environmental, social, community health and human rights impact assessment studies. His work in ESG consultancy is largely conducted in the Global South, evaluating impacts from renewable energy, oil and gas, mining and infrastructure projects, with a focus on vulnerable groups.

Crosscutting research interests: The function of law and legal reasoning The law and function of international institutions (both political organizations and judicial bodies) The role of rights in international governance Publication areas: Human rights Social protection Judicial review International organizations / institutions Law and governance of the European Union Editor in Chief of Åbo Akademi Institute for Human Rights Working Paper Series

Projects

IMPLEMENTING CHILDREN’S RIGHT TO PARTICIPATION IN AFRICA: AN EVALUATION OF THE LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORKS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND CAMEROON

Lisa Grans holds a PhD in Public International Law from Åbo Akademi University (2018) and has published extensively on the issue of women’s rights, with a particular focus on violence against women. Her expertise also includes the prohibition of discrimination, the prohibition of torture and linguistic rights. Grans has worked practically for over 20 years with promoting the human rights of women and other disadvantaged groups in cooperation with the relevant governmental bodies in countries such as Georgia, Kosovo and Turkey, having been based in the latter two.

Projects

Prevention of honour-related violence through the lens of the right to physical and psychological integrity

Over 48 million people were internally displaced due to armed conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations, according to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), at the end of 2020. The concept of internally displaced persons (IDP) can be understood as persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) stated in their 2021 Global Report on Internal Displacement that the pandemic increased the needs and vulnerabilities of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and measures to curb the spread of coronavirus have greatly hindered humanitarian efforts. In consideration of this and the fact that globally the pandemic has dealt a hard blow on the global economy that it is important that an examination on how citizens who have decided not to totally depend on humanitarian aids and build businesses in order to earn a living have been able to survive. This research will also be examining and theorize the idea of a growing economy within the IDP camps.