Matthew Evans Director Expand Matthew Evans Director Matthew Evans joined the AIRE Centre as Director in October 2013. He qualified as a Solicitor in 1995 and is responsible for managing all aspects of the AIRE Centre's work as well as undertaking litigation himself. Prior to joining the AIRE Centre, Matthew was Managing Solicitor at the Prisoners Advice Service and in private practice, where he undertook mental health, community care and public law work. Matthew has been involved in over a dozen cases before the UK Supreme Court including Janah and Benkarbouche (a challenge to the UK’s State Immunity Act), SM (Algeria) (reference from UKSC to CJEU around direct family members) and Gubeladze (challenge to Worker Registration Scheme extension), as well as a number of other cases in the UK Higher Courts such as Help Refugees v SSHD (Dubs amendment), Gureckis (EU Rough Sleeper challenge), MK (Pakistan) (Extended Family Members appeal rights). Third Party Interventions in the European Courts, include cases on LGBTI rights (Sabalic v Croatia and Oliari and others v Italy), and immigration detention (OM v Hungary), as well as before the CJEU such as NA (derived rights and domestic violence victims) and Bajraktari (self-sufficiency and Chen parents). Matthew holds Masters degrees from Southampton University, the London School of Economics and Kings College London as well as a postgraduate qualification in Voluntary Sector Management from the CASS Business School. Matthew was shortlisted for the Law Society's Human Rights Lawyer of the Year award in 2017 and 2018. He is also Director of External Relations at Queen Mary University of London
Nuala Mole Senior Lawyer Expand Nuala Mole Senior Lawyer Nuala Mole founded the AIRE Centre and has worked for more than 25 years in the field of human rights. Initially specialising in immigration and asylum, she has broadened her work to include all aspects of international human rights law. She has written extensively on all aspects of the European Convention on Human Rights and on the free movement of persons under European Union law, with special attention to the interface between the two legal orders. She is on the Board of the European Human Rights Law Review and co-edits the Centre's monthly Bulletin of ECHR caselaw. She has been part of the legal team in more than 100 cases before the ECtHR, the ECJ and landmark cases in the UK. She was the Law Society's Human Rights Lawyer of the Year in 2001. She also received the 2005 Prix de l'Ancien - this Alumnus of the Year Prize is awarded each year to a former student of the College of Europe who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of the European ideal, the promotion of excellence, generosity, tolerance and respect for diversity, friendship and solidarity and open-mindedness. Nuala received a doctorate from the University of Essex in 2009Nuala has conducted training for the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the AIRE Centre for judges, public officials, lawyers and NGOs in 40 of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe on a wide range of topics including immigration, prisoners' rights, children's rights and family law. Since 2001, she has been assisting in curriculum development and implementation for judicial training centres in South East Europe. She works with national and international judges and public officials throughout Western, Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, but particularly in the Balkans, promoting familiarity and awareness with human rights standards and providing assistance in applying them in practice. Before setting up the AIRE Centre she was the Director of the NGO Interights for a number of years. Nuala read law at St Anne's College, Oxford and European law at the College of Europe. She speaks English, French, Spanish and Greek.
Markella Papadouli Europe Litigation Coordinator Expand Markella Papadouli Europe Litigation Coordinator Markella has been associated with The AIRE Centre since 2012 and she returned in 2013. Markella is a UK Registered, Greek qualified, European lawyer and AIRE Centre’s Europe Litigation Coordinator. In this capacity she coordinates the AIRE Centre strategic litigation team, specialising on taking asylum, and trafficking cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the EU. She leads the AIRE Centre’s asylum, law of the sea, and trafficking work, providing free legal advice and representation to victims of trafficking, the delivery of training to relevant stakeholders and the representation of the AIRE Centre at conferences and meetings worldwide on both issues of interest. Markella represents the AIRE Centre in the Frontex NGO Consultative Forum and the EASO Consultative Forum. Markella is a Lecturer at London South Bank University for the Msc in Refuge Studies on European Asylum Law and Policy and International Refugee Law since 2013. Markella studied Law t the University of Athens and holds an LLM degree in Maritime Law from the University of Southamption and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Warwick on International Relations and Human Rights. her Maritime law dissertation critically assessed the interaction between the international and European maritime law provisions with the Common European Asylum system and the Dublin Regulation in particular, while her MA dissertation focused on the role of UNHCR in monitoring implementation of EU legislation and policies on migration and asylum. She further holds a Diploma in Grants Management and has completed the Odysseus Network Summer School in European Law and Policy on Immigration and Asylum. Markella was the National Expert on Greece for the European Database on Asylum Law in 2013 and has also worked for the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, the International Rescue Committee and UNHCR Greece. Markella speaks fluent Greek, English, French and Spanish as well as basic German.
Saadiya Chaudary Legal Project Manager Expand Saadiya Chaudary Legal Project Manager Saadiya Chaudary first came to the AIRE Centre as an intern in 2005 and rejoined the team as Legal Project Manager in February 2010. In this role, Saadiya coordinates the Centre’s Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence Law Project and undertakes third-party interventions and litigation before UK courts and tribunals, the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union. She is a central member of our advice service, particularly in matters of family law, domestic violence, trafficking and in issues of asylum relating to trafficking. Saadiya is also an important part of our training team and represents the Centre at conferences and meetings throughout Europe on a range of issues. Prior to joining the AIRE Centre, Saadiya was Acting Legal Officer at the Kurdish Human Rights Project and she also carried out work with Reprieve as a member of the Gitmo Civilian Defence Team. Following training at Bindmans LLP, Saadiya qualified as a solicitor in April 2008 and she holds a Masters with distinction in International Law. She has authored & co-authored a number of publications including a chapter contribution in 'Human Trafficking Handbook: Recognising Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery in the UK'. Saadiya also speaks Punjabi and Urdu.
Ralitsa Peykova Legal Project Officer and Consultant for the Western Balkans Rule of Law Project Expand Ralitsa Peykova Legal Project Officer and Consultant for the Western Balkans Rule of Law Project Ralitsa Peykova has been associated with the AIRE Centre since 2016, when she begun working as a legal caseworker. Ralitsa worked on the AIRE Centre’s domestic violence project, FIRST, an EU funded project aiming to build capacity for First Points of Contact for Victims of Domestic and Gender-based Violence. She is now a Legal Project Officer and consultant for the Western Balkans Rule of Law Project and the Homelessness Project. Ralitsa holds an LLB from the University of Southampton, an LLM from the University of Queen Mary and an MA in Gender Studies and Law from SOAS, University of London. She completed the Legal Practice Course (LPC) part-time at BPP University, with electives in Immigration law, Family law and Employment law. Ralitsa is also OISC Level 1 accredited. Before joining the AIRE Centre, she worked in the field of human rights for almost 2 years, as a legal case writer for The Global Freedom of Expression & Information Jurisprudence Project by Columbia University researching exemplary freedom of expression/hate speech cases. She also interned at the National Machinery for Women's Rights in the Ministry of Justice and Public Order in Cyprus, where she helped prepare submissions and reports regarding the implementation of CEDAW and the Istanbul Convention in Cyprus. She speaks English, Bulgarian and Greek and has basic understanding of French.