Jelena Hawellek focused on public international law and European law at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. As a legal clerk she was seconded to the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin and the Division of European Affairs of the German Bundestag. She subsequently worked as an associate legal officer at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). As a Mercator Fellow, she will focus on how to safeguard the guarantees of various human rights instruments in the European refugee policy and on practical approaches for providing short-term protection for refugees.