China expert with 30+ years academic, human rights and human trafficking experience. 20+ years experience writing China country expert witness reports for UK asylum cases on wide range of substantive grounds. 5+ years experience as UK NRM first responder.
I am a historian of twentieth century Central America who also works on contemporary Central American politics. I gained my PhD in Political Studies from the University of Aberdeen in 2014, with a thesis on Nicaragua’s Contra War. Prior to the PhD I worked for a number of NGOs, including Amnesty International's International Secretariat. I have spent several years living in Central America and my reports draw on extensive, up-to-date research covering press, civil society and human rights reports. I have completed numerous reports on Central American cases in recent years and my work is highly regarded. Clients have commented that I was highly recommended to them, and they describe my work as thorough, detailed, and carefully tailored to the appellant's specific circumstances. My reports have contributed to the reversal of Home Office decisions in a number of cases.
Luke Freeman, PhD, is a leading expert on the culture and politics of Madagascar. He has brought this expertise to roles as a tenured professor at the University of London (LSE & UCL), as a special advisor to former president Marc Ravalomanana, and as a social and political risk analyst to the Madagascar extractive sector. He has also filled leading roles in the development and humanitarian sector, notably as a pioneer of the application of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for indigenous peoples in the tropical timber sector. Luke's recent responsibilities include Director of Social Performance at Rio Tinto Madagascar, Director of Social Policy at UNICEF Madagascar and Head of Social Behaviour Change at CRS Madagascar. He has also worked as an advertising strategist for the WPP group and a leadership coach in the university sector.
Country expert specialising in the preparation of country expert reports on the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus for international protection and political asylum procedures, as well as for extradition-defence proceedings. More than 17 years of continuous legal practice in the fields of immigration and international law. Author of over 100 expert reports used in immigration and court proceedings in the European Union, the United States, Serbia, Montenegro and Senegal.
Managing Partner of the Moscow Bar Association 'Dombrovitskiy and Partners' (established in 2009) and founder of the international human-rights network INTERPOL-SOS, which brings together lawyers, journalists, private investigators and judicial experts from more than 200 countries. Possesses exceptional, and in part personal, knowledge of the functioning of the Russian repressive system: in January 2023 he was included by the Russian Ministry of Justice in the register of 'foreign agents'; he personally went through the procedure of having his own file removed from the Interpol Information System following a decision of the Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files (CCF), which found the Russian request to be politically motivated and contrary to the Organisation's Constitution… Read more
Dr. Shaul Gabbay completed a BA at Bar Ilan University and an MA at Tel-Aviv University. In 1991 he received a Presidential Fellowship from the U.S. to continue his studies. In 1995 he completed the PhD program at Columbia University in New York and received an invitation from the University of Chicago for a Post Doctoral program. In 1998 Dr. Gabbay returned to Israel to join the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Professor Gabbay joined the University of Denver as the Director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies in 2001- 2010. He continued his research at DU as a Senior Scholar until 2015 when he was appointed Director of the Global Research Institute.
His areas of expertise include Middle East cultures and societal norms, Middle East conflicts, and human rights issues existing in Muslim societies. He is regularly cited and acts as a commentator in national and international media such as the Associated Press, CBS, NBC, FOX and MSNBC.
Nell Gabiam is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Political science at Iowa State University. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. She is the author of The Politics of Suffering: Syria’s Palestinian Refugee Camps, which was published in May 2016 by Indiana University Press. While her earlier research focused on the politics of humanitarianism and development in Palestinian refugee camps, her more recent research focuses on Palestinians displaced by the ongoing Syrian war and has taken her to Jordan, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, France, Sweden, and Germany.
The expert is a seasoned International Analyst and Political Scientist, specializing in humanitarian disarmament, arms control, and criminal structures operating in the Latin America and Caribbean region, with extensive experience in NGOs in Argentina and Colombia. His research and academic endeavors are dedicated to addressing pressing issues in defense, security, and humanitarian efforts in the region.
I analyze emerging and developing markets focusing on how economic structures and institutions shape real outcomes. My work delivers practical insights on risk, growth, and structural constraints based on how these politics and economies actually function on the ground.
Temesgen Gebrehiwet is an independent researcher and country expert specialising in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and the broader Horn of Africa, with particular expertise in political conditions, human rights, forced migration, and state governance structures. He holds an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from the University of Oxford and an LLB in Law.
He has native fluency in Tigrinya and professional fluency in Amharic, providing direct linguistic access to primary sources and community networks unavailable to most researchers. He has lived experience of the Eritrean political context, including the impact of indefinite national service conscription, restrictions on freedom of movement.
He is a researcher affiliated with Chatham House (Chatham House Academy), the Mixed Migration Centre, and has contributed to the FCDO-funded THEA programme (Ashden/Mercy Corps Europe).
Academic with expertise on many countries in the Middle East; has extensive experience providing expert reports, including nationality assessment and document authentication reports.
The expert is lecturer in Kurdish and Gender Studies at the University of Exeter and has extensive experience in providing country expert reports, nationality assessment, and language analysis.
Independent researcher. Country expert reports, nationality assessment, language analysis, Gender-based violence, Ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, and Document authentication.
I am an independent expert in country and asylum matters, focusing on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and broader regions of the Middle East and South Asia. I have served as an expert witness since 2018 and bring a solid background in law and advocacy before Pakistan’s High Courts. Using a thorough and impartial approach, along with deep regional and language expertise, I analyse social, cultural, legal, and political issues related to asylum, immigration, and refugee cases throughout these areas.
I hold LLB (Hons) Degree from University of London, MSc Business Operations & Management from Glasgow Caledonian University, and Legal Practice Course Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne.
I work as litigation lawyer in Pakistan as Advocate High Courts since 2018. I have worked for numerous clients and represented them in Criminal, Civil, Labour, Commercial, Constitutional, Administrative Law, Public Law, cases in Provincial and Federal Courts.
Dr. Antonio Giustozzi is a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He took his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is the author of several articles and papers on Afghanistan, as well as of seven books, War, politics and society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992 (Georgetown University Press), Koran, Kalashnikov and laptop: the Neo-Taliban insurgency, 2002-7 (Columbia University Press), Empires of mud: war and warlords in Afghanistan (Columbia University Press), Policing Afghanistan (with M. Ishaqzada, Columbia University Press, 2013), The army of Afghanistan (Hurst, 2016), the Islamic State in Khorasan (Hurst, 2018 and II ed 2022) and Taliban at war (OUP USA, 2019 and II ed. 2022). He also authored a volume on the role of coercion and violence in state-building, The Art of Coercion (Columbia University Press, 2011), one on advisory missions (Missionaries of modernity, Hurst, 2016), one on Jihadism in Pakistan (IB Tauris, 2023) and edited a volume on the Taliban, Decoding the New Taliban (Columbia University Press, 2009), featuring contributions by specialists from different backgrounds. He contributes regularly to the media and to periodical publications. In the past he worked among else as a consultant for the EUSR… Read more
David Glovsky is an Assistant Professor of African History at Boston University (BU). He is a historian of 19th and 20th century West Africa, with a focus on Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea. His research and teaching interests include histories of mobility and migration, borderlands, spatial history, Islam, citizenship, gender, and histories of popular culture/sport.
Prof. Glovsky has extensive research experience in greater Senegambia, focused on cross-border mobility and belonging among primarily rural communities. His work is embedded in understanding how people in border regions conceive of their spaces, rather than state views from the outside. He holds a B.A. in History and Human Geography from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in African History from Michigan State University. Prior his time at BU, he taught in the Department of Africana Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York.
Daniel M. Goldstein is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University. He is the author or co-author of four ethnographies and numerous articles based on his research in Bolivia and the United States. His areas of interest include the anthropology of politics and law, security, violence, immigration, and urban life. Daniel retired from academia in 2018 to pursue a career as a novelist, but he remains involved in the study of Latin American political and social life.
Audra Grant works at the intersection of conflict, human rights, and governance in fragile, conflict-affected settings in the Middle East and Africa. As an international development professional and subject matter expert at NORC, her projects addressed diverse issues affecting vulnerable populations, from human rights, illicit trade, extremism, and organized crime to child labor and youth recruitment into violence. Audra has over 20 years of experience as a practitioner, security and policy professional and academic and has worked in nearly every country in the Middle East and North Africa and also in over 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, providing policy and program advice to the USG, private sector, and international donors. She held senior positions at RAND and was a career analyst at the U.S. Department of State / INR. A former assistant professor at University Al-Akhawayn, Ifrane, Morocco, she is a Senior Lecturer at The George Washington University. Audra is also an advisor for the Women’s Ambassador Foundation, Howard University, and reviewer for the Journal of Peace and Development and Contemporary Review of the Middle East.
Dr. Sonali Gupta, LL.B., Ph.D. (UCLA), is an anthropologist, legal expert, and educator specializing in migration, asylum, cultural resilience, and narcotics law. As President and Co-Founder of the Himalayan Conservation & Preservation Society (USA) and Founder-Director of the Himalayan Institute of Cultural & Heritage Studies (India), she has devoted over two decades to research, migration policy, and community engagement across the Himalayas and South Asia. Her experience includes six years of legal practice in India, handling asylum, migration, and narcotics cases, which provided in-depth insight into both legal and prison systems. She has also worked as legal staff in the United States, conducted extensive ethnographic research on caste, gender, resilience, and climate-driven migration, and served as adjunct professor at UCLA in anthropology and regional studies.
Dr. Gupta’s work creates bridges between ground-level realities and global advocacy frameworks, advancing social justice and sustainable development for marginalized communities. She leads initiatives on cultural preservation, legal empowerment, and grassroots healing—from founding a migrant memory hub in Delhi and innovative field programs in Himachal Pradesh, to advising… Read more
The expert is a specialist for Nepal and Bhutan – the countries in the Himalayan belt. Since he embarked on his doctoral research project in 2019, he has been assisting the UK, U.S., and European courts, including NGOs and business organisations, with country expert reports on his area of expertise. Apart from the trajectory of his academic career within the areas of his expertise, he has led community projects in Nepal and the UK – and in doing so; he has spent a substantial length of time in Nepal and with Nepali communities in the UK. Moreover, the expert actively engaged and collaborated with Nepali civil societies while working for INGOs in Nepal. He regularly travels to Nepal for research and social enterprise projects – and closely collaborates with native organisations based in Nepal and Bhutan. The Nepal-raised expert has experience of the immigration litigation process and has appeared in court to provide testimony. Besides providing country expert reports both in the form of high depth and breadth, he also provides Nepali language and cultural expertise.
The expert is currently a PhD candidate – and conducting his doctoral research on Nepali politics at Birkbeck, University of London. Prior to Birkbeck, he was associated with the Queen Mary University of… Read more
Lirio Gutiérrez Rivera is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (National University of Colombia). She studied political science (Freie Universität Berlin) and anthropology (Universidad de los Andes- Colombia). Her research includes urban violence, contemporary prisons, youth and street gangs, gender and urban planning, community leaders, and state responses to crime and violence in Latin America, particularly Honduras and Colombia. Her research has been funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Latin American Council for Social Research. Her book, Territories of Violence. State, Marginal Youth, and Public Security, was published in 2013 with Palgrave. She is currently working on her second book on women community leaders and high risk urban contexts in Colombia.