Neil Falzon

Background

About Neil Falzon

Neil established the human rights NGO aditus foundation in 2011. As the organisation’s Director Neil is responsible for its overall management, and also actively involved in most of its projects and activities. He represents the organisation in its external relations, including through extensive media presence nationally and internationally. Within aditus, Neil is Project Manager for the FRANET Team. He is one of the Malta Coordinators of the European Legal Network on Asylum (ELENA), and member of the Academic network for legal studies on immigration & asylum in Europe (Odysseus Network). In 2014 he was awarded an LGBTI Community Award for his work in advancing LGBTI rights in Malta, and in 2015 elected to the Board of the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) to represent the Mediterranean Region. He is currently Head of Secretariat of the Platform of Human Rights Organisations in Malta (PHROM). Neil was awarded his law degree in 2001, at a time when he headed Amnesty International’s Malta branch. He then successfully completed his Mediterranean Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation in 2004, writing his dissertation on the positive duty of states to prevent human rights violations. Between 2005 and 2009 Neil headed the Malta office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), focusing on building UNHCR’s Malta presence, engaging in heavy advocacy efforts with the Maltese authorities, supporting NGOs and promoting a rights-based discourse and approach to migration and asylum. Neil lectures at the University of Malta: International Human Rights Law, Human Rights for Social Workers, and Regional Systems and Instruments of Human Rights Protection. He researched and drafted several technical reports including on interception at sea of refugees and migrants and the ‘Left to die boat’ for the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, gender identity and marriage equality for the Malta Gay Rights Movement.