Associate Prof. Dr. Janna Wessels

Janna Wessels is Principal Investigator in the MeDiMi project “Who is Empowered by Strasbourg? Migrants and States before the ECtHR”. She is Associate Professor at the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law (ACMRL), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Prior to joining the ACMRL, Janna Wessels held positions at Justus Liebig University Giessen and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She received her PhD in refugee law from the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney and the Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (joint degree). She is a member of the Dutch Meijers Committee – Standing Committee of Experts in International Immigration, Refugee and Criminal Law, an Affiliate of the Refugee Law Initiative (London), and a member of the German Network Migration Law. Janna Wessels’ research investigates the link between human rights and migration law and policy. She is the author of the monograph “The Concealment Controversy. Sexual Orientation, Discretion Reasoning and the Scope of Refugee Protection” (CUP 2021, paperback 2023) and co-author of “Human Rights Challenges to European Migration Policy. The REMAP Study” (Hart/Nomos 2022, open access). Her current research focuses on strategic litigation by states in migration-related cases before the European Court of Human Rights (Dutch NWO Veni project).

Contact: j.m.wessels@vu.nl