Nadine El-Dekmak is a PhD Researcher at VUB and a member researcher at the Fundamental Rights Research Centre (FRC). Her research focuses on the Legal Dynamics of Tied Visas, Exploitative Recruitment Practices, and Human Rights Due Diligence: Analysing Case Studies, Challenges and their Impact on Labour exploitation of Migrant Workers. 

Nadine El-Dekmak joined the VUB in 2022 and has since worked on several interdisciplinary research projects on the fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation, human trafficking. In addition to research projects related to the promotion and awareness raising on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Prior to joining the VUB, 

Nadine El-Dekmak holds a master’s degree in Law from the Lebanese University (LBN). After graduating, she took on her first internship at the Special Tribunal For Lebanon (STL,The Hague). In the Hague, she interned in the Defense Office of the STL as her main tasks focused on conducting research on both International Criminal Law and Lebanese Criminal Law.

Since 2020, Nadine took the pledge before the court of Appeal in Beirut and joined the Beirut Bar Association as a trainee lawyer.

In addition to the Lebanese master’s degree, in 2022 she got her L.L.M degree in International and European Law from the Brussels School of Governance – Institute of European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit of Brussels. She wrote her dissertation on the Kafala system (sponsorship system) and the international standards of migrant workers. Her work sought to analyze whether the sponsorship system, under which migrant domestic workers are recruited, breaches human rights instruments and international standards of migrant workers.