Rositsa Atanasova
Rositsa Atanasova is Talking Hope’s adviser on legal frameworks, especially in the context of social justice and human rights policy. Born in communist Bulgaria, she went on an impressive journey through academia to ultimately become a lawyer on refugee, migration and human rights issues. Her degrees in classical studies, Arabic, theology, and law took her from the United States via the Sorbonne and Harvard to Cambridge University and back again to Europe. “If at all, we’re all ‘economic migrants’,” she likes to raise the odd eyebrow amongst highly white-collared surroundings, “Isn’t it funny that you are only called an expat when you are rich?” What drives her is the idea of human dignity, regardless of pomp or poverty, or even popularity. For more than 15 years now, she has advised on human rights issues and managed projects for NGOs, government and other organizations, among them the European External Action Service, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and JK Rowling’s Lumos Foundation. Where does this come from? “Maybe it is as simple as just investing in people?”, she laughs, “Isn’t that how we create meaning and belonging?”
Rearview: B. A. in Classical Studies, Willamette University, USA | University Diploma in Arabic Language and Literature, Université Paris IV Sorbonne, France | M. Theol., with specialization in Islamic studies, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, USA; Graduate Felloe, The Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School | LL. B., Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK | LL.M. Law in a European and Global Context, Católica Global School of Law, Portugal | Research Fellow, Lilly Endowment, Paris | Consultant, Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, Salem, OR, USA | Windsor Fellow, Legal Adviser’s Branch, Home Office, London, UK | Project Administration Manager & Emergency Desk Consultant, Médecines Sans Frontières, Brussels, Belgium, and Amsterdam, Netherlands | Project Manager for Unaccompanied Migrant and Refugee Children, Lumos Foundation, Sofia, Bulgaria | Advocacy Expert, Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria, Sofia | Senior Legal Assistant, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Sofia | Independent Consultant on refugee, migration, human rights, children’s rights, gender and religion & politics issues as well as EU law | Advocacy & Communications Expert, Foundation for Access to Rights, FAR, Sofia | Numerous publications, policy briefs, public lectures and media appearances on asylum and migration as well as Islamic studies | Member of the Board and General Assembly, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
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