Gisti, group of information and support of Immigrants
Organization information
Gisti
Location: Paris, France
Summary
Gisti is a French non-profit organization for human rights created in 1972 to protect the legal and political rights of foreigners and immigrants and to advocate freedom of movement across borders.
Defending the Rights of Migrants
Gisti was created as a result of the cooperation between social workers and activists working regularly with migrants and lawyers. This double approach, both concrete and legal, constitutes the primary originality of the group. Gisti operates in the legal domain in order to respond to the needs of migrants and to those of the organisations that support them. This means of intervention is all the more necessary given that the regulations that are relevant to migrants are often misunderstood even within the administrations that are responsible for applying these regulations.
Defending the Rule of Law
To defend the liberties of migrants is to defend the rule of law. Gisti publishes and analyses a large number of texts, in particular those that are not made public by the administration. Gisti supports numerous individual appeal cases in court, including the Commission and the European Court of Human Rights. It also takes the initiative to refer illegal decrees and circulars to the appraisal of the State Council (Conseil d’État). All of these interventions are supported by a legal consultation service that operates by telephone and mail and a weekly reception service where volunteer lawyers advise and assist migrants who are having difficulty exercising their rights.
Project locations
France