About Us

Professional Experience

Emellin de Oliveira is a Partner at Paxlegal and heads the firm’s Human Rights practice. She advises and represents clients in asylum and refugee law, immigration and nationality matters, and human rights litigation under Portuguese law, EU law and the Council of Europe framework.

She assists applicants for international or temporary protection and advises foreign nationals and their families on visa applications and applications for the grant or renewal of residence permits.

Her immigration litigation practice covers refusals and cancellations of residence permits, notices requiring voluntary departure from Portugal, removal and expulsion proceedings, and the administrative detention or holding of foreign nationals. Her human rights work also encompasses domestic and gender-based violence, discrimination, harassment and xenophobia, including in the workplace.

Alongside her legal practice, Emellin co-directs and teaches on the Postgraduate Programme in Immigration and Nationality Law at NOVA School of Law Executive Education. She is also co-founder and Executive Coordinator of the NOVA Asylum Policy Lab, a researcher at CEDIS, the Research and Development Centre on Law and Society at NOVA School of Law, and is pursuing a PhD in Public Law with a focus on EU law.

Emellin is a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on International Migration and International Law, Portugal’s national expert for the MoveS network, and a member of a Council of Europe network supporting women victim of violence. She contributes as a consultant to European and multilateral projects and is regularly invited to speak at training events for public bodies and private organisations.

She holds a master’s degree in International Migration from ISCTE-IUL, completed the National Defence Auditor programme at Portugal’s National Defence Institute, and holds a postgraduate qualification in Human Rights from Ius Gentium Conimbrigae at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra. She obtained her law degree from the Federal University of Ceará.

Emellin has contributed to academic articles and collective works on migration, asylum and human rights, and is regularly invited to comment on these subjects in the media.

Fluent in Portuguese, English, French, Italian and Spanish, she operates in international contexts, combining legal practice with critical thinking and institutional engagement.