Fields of research
Human and Minority Rights, Antidiscrimination Law, Environmental Law
Current research projects
Senior legal expert for Serbia within FRANET multidisciplinary research network of EU Fundamental Rights Agency . (2023-2027)
Biography
The year of receiving the highest degree of professional qualification PhD 2023
Ivana Stjelja was born in Belgrade, where she attended primary school and the Fifth Belgrade Grammar School. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade in 2010 and a Master’s degree at the same faculty with a sub-module in administrative law. in 2013, she defended her MA thesis on Environmental Inspection. In 2023, she defended her PhD thesis entitled Public Participation in Achieving Environmental Justice in Serbia at the Faculty of Law, Union University.
As part of her doctoral research, she spent three months at Free University Berlin in 2021 as a recipient of the Civil Society Scholar Award granted by the Open Society Foundations.
Ivana joined the Institute of Social Sciences in 2018 as a project associate and has been a research associate since 2024. Before joining the Institute, she worked in civil society organisations dealing with the protection of human rights (Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM and Praxis) and in the international organisation Regional Environmental Centre.
She has worked as a consultant for several international organisations and domestic civil society organisations dealing with human rights and environmental protection (e.g. GIZ, Council of Europe, Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, Boka’s Initiative for Youth with Disabilities, etc.).
Ivana has participated in numerous conferences on human rights and environmental law and has published several academic papers, analyses and other publications in these fields. She is currently a senior legal expert for Serbia at FRANET, the multidisciplinary research network of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
She is a member of the Program Board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM, member of the Board for Complaints of Belgrade Pride and member of the Complaints Commission of the Press Council 2015 to 2019
Scholarships, fellowships, grants
2021 – Civil Society Scholar Award Open Society Foundations (reseacrh at Free University Berlin)
Major publications
- Стјеља, И. (2024). Начело учешћа јавности у доношењу одлука од значаја за животну средину у међународном праву, Правни вјесник, 40, 1. стр. 97–117.
- Stjelja, (2024), Locus Standi Before Administrative Courts in Environmental Matters – A European Perspective. Strani pravni život 68, 2, 253–270.
- Joković Pantelić, M. & Stjelja, (2023). Tolerance and Intercultural Dialogue vs. Discrimination of National Minorities – Application of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in Serbia, in: Bašić, G. (ed.) Monitoring Minority Rights Twenty-Five Years of Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade Academic Network for Cooperation in South East Europe, Belgrade & Institute for Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana (pp. 220–249).
- Bašić, G. & Stjelja, (2021). Discrimination and Roma Identity in Serbia, Pravni zapisi 12, 1, pp. 234–260.
