Melbourne Law School’s Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness was established in 2018 with the objective of undertaking research, teaching and engagement activities aimed at reducing statelessness and protecting the rights of stateless people in Australia, the Asia Pacific region, and as appropriate more broadly.

The focus of the Centre is to develop teaching, research and engagement projects with three major aims:

• To properly understand the scope, scale and reasons for statelessness in order to develop targeted and effective responses to it;
• To work towards reducing and, over time, eliminating statelessness; and
• Until statelessness is eliminated, working to protect the human rights of stateless people within the countries in which they reside.

The Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness offers opportunities for collaboration, debate and information sharing through conferences, round tables and visiting fellowships. The Centre also supports the work of the University of Melbourne’s Hallmark Statelessness Research Initiative.

The Centre has been established by a very generous philanthropic gift over 10 years from Peter and Ruth McMullin, and has strong support from the University of Melbourne, including in particular the Melbourne School of Government, in recognition of the inter-disciplinary nature of the issues.