Undocumented people are excluded and marginalised by the nation-state because they do not have valid identification to access basic human rights. In various cities, the concept of the City ID is already implemented successfully. During the ‘Week Against Racism’ Amsterdam City Rights invited speakers from New York City ID and San Francisco to present and explain how the City ID impacts their cities. In this session, the Sans Papiers movement from Zurich will present its roadmap for implementing the City ID. Together with Amsterdam City Rights, Sans Papiers will discuss the options of City ID for Amsterdam.
- Bea Schwager set up the Information Office for Undocumented Migrants in Zurich (Sans-Papiers Anlaufstelle Zürich), also known as SPAZ, and has been running it since 2005. She is also co-president of the association for the rights of illegalized children, which carried out the nationwide campaign “No child is illegal”. Prior to that, she worked for more than 10 years as co-managing director and project coordinator in international development cooperation.
- Jerry Afriyie is a poet and human rights activist in the Netherlands. He is founder of the foundations Nederland Wordt Beter and the Soul Rebel Movement.
- Alejandra Ortiz is a trans woman originally from Mexico currently living in Amsterdam. As a transwoman, coming from poverty, violence, sex work, drug abuse, stigma, and illegal displacement to the USA. She fled Mexico after a life of violence and transphobia to the Netherlands. Alejandra invests all survival skills and talents to improve hers, and the trans communities’ lives by collaborating with several projects for Trans United Europe (media, communications, T-Huis Cafe, Trans Clinic and one on one guidance). As well as other organizations and projects.
City Rights United poster on the City ID
Design by Cococollective © City Rights United
About the conference
With various (inter)national speakers and in a mix of plenary and break-out sessions, we dive into the best practices from Europe that the City Rights United team collected. Throughout the evening, there is a walk-in marketplace with t-shirts and other merchandise run and developed by undocumented people!
Register here for the full program of this conference in Pakhuis de Zwijger (access to this offline event is free, registration necessary).
About the project
“The Toolkit for Inclusive Cities” is a collection of practices in European cities to make their cities more inclusive and accessible for undocumented people. The toolkit takes many forms: posters, videos, podcasts but also workshops and lectures. The toolkit is the result of 2 years of intense collaboration between various partners in Europe sharing their experiences, practices and knowledge on organising locally and overcoming local challenges for undocumented people. All this information is now combined in the toolkit, which will be presented during this conference on May 12 in Pakhuis de Zwijger. The conference continues for 2 days (on May 13-14) in BAK Utrecht, with worksessions and events.
The network City Rights United, started in 2019 by Here To Support, consists of partner organisations based on collaborations of citizens with and without documents.
