GISTI

Description

Gisti is a French organization campaigning for equal rights and citizenship for foreigners, and for freedom of movement.

Its full name is Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigré·es. It was founded in 1972 by lawyers, social workers and activists. It works as a self-described militant expert body, combining legal analysis with fieldwork.

Gisti gives free legal advice to foreigners, mostly by mail and through a daily telephone helpline. It covers visas, residence permits, social protection, work, family reunification, nationality and asylum. In many cases it helps people carry out their own procedures, and in others it supports them directly in administrative appeals or court cases.

The organization trains legal practitioners, civil servants and members of associations on foreigners’ rights, asylum and unaccompanied migrant children. It publishes practical guides, thematic notes and a quarterly review called Plein Droit. It also takes legal action, regularly challenging laws, regulations and circulars before the Conseil d’État, and it has brought cases before the European Court of Human Rights and European Union courts.

Gisti works with other associations in France and abroad, and helped found the Migreurop network in 2002. It has around 200 members and nine staff members, and depends heavily on volunteers for its work.