A social anthropologist (Ph.D. Cambridge 2002), Dr Daryn brings over three decades of hands-on and academic experience in anthropology, human rights, politics, and refugee policy across South Asia. This includes 18 years of living in Nepal and India, doing prolonged spells of fieldwork and research, as well as work in various international organisations. During his British Academy postdoctoral fellowship at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London, 2003-6) Dr Daryn also taught the MA course: “The Anthropology of South Asia”. He became closely acquainted with asylum seekers, including Bangladeshis, Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Burmese, and Tibetans, while working in UNHCR’s Kathmandu office (Nepal) during 2008-9 as an Associate Durable Solutions Officer. In this capacity, Dr Daryn became familiar with the RSD process and UNHCR’s Country of Origin information on South Asian countries, read in detail many private refugee files, and conducted focus group discussions and interviews with many refugees. Since then, he has focused on the study of human rights in South Asian countries. From 2005 onwards, Dr Daryn has served as an Expert Witness in asylum appeal cases and has written over 230 Expert Reports for court cases mainly in the UK, but also in the USA, Netherlands, and Hong Kong. In appeal number AA/11534/2014, J. Eames, the Judge of the First-Tier Tribunal commented on Dr Daryn’s work and observed that “He [Dr Gil Daryn] plainly understands his duty of truth to the tribunal” adding that the report is one that “I can properly place very considerable weight” upon.
Countries of Expertise:
- Bangladesh
- India
- Pakistan
- Nepal
- Sri Lanka
- Bhutan
- Tibet
- Myanmar (Rohingyas)
Political, religious, ethnic, media, and LGBTQ human rights abuses and persecution for any reasons; gender-based violence (including forced marriages and honour killings); conflict-related harms, trafficking, torture, socioeconomic vulnerabilities (homelessness, land disputes, lack of protection, internal relocation); health, old age, medical and other disability issues (including HIV/AIDS, mental illness, healthcare access, specialised services).
Dr Gil Daryn has over 30 years of experience in South Asia, including academic research, professional work, and long-term residence in the region. For more than two decades, he has focused extensively on human rights issues in South Asia and has written over 230 expert reports.
2010. Book Review of “Hindu Kingship, Ethnic Revival, and Maoist Rebellion in Nepal”, by Marie Lecomte-Tillouine. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.). 16:2, 452-453.
2008. Book Review of “Domestic Mandala: architecture of lifeworlds in Nepal”, by John Gray. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, (N.S.) 14: 1, 202-203.
2007. Inversion revisited: dai halne – a Himalayan inversion of hierarchy and trust. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 13, 845-861.
2007. The End of Shangri-La: Self-Perpetuating Tendencies and Invisible Displacement in the Nepalese Maoist ‘People’s War’, in Crisis of State and Nation – South Asian States Between Nation Building and Fragmentation. D. Malik and J. P. Neelsen eds., Manohar Publishers, New Delhi.
2006. Encompassing a Fractal World, The Energetic Female Core in Myth and Everyday Life – a Few Lessons Drawn from the Nepalese Himalaya. Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield), USA.
2003. Bahuns – Ethnicity without an ‘Ethnic Group’, in Ethnic Revival and Religious Turmoil, Identities and Representation in the Himalayas, M. LecomteTilouine & P. Dollfus (eds.), Oxford University Press.
2000. A Study of the Human Settlement in the Nachal Amud Region (co-author), Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House Ltd, Tel Aviv.
1998. Moroccan Hassidism: The Chavrei Habakuk Community and its Veneration of Saints, Ethnology - An International Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 351-372.
1996. The Organisation of Space and the Symbolism of the Indo-Nepalese House in Central Nepal – Preliminary observations during fieldwork. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, No. 11, CNRS – Paris, SOAS – London, SAI – Heidelberg.
Hebrew – fluent speaking, reading and writing.
Nepali – fluent speaking, intermediate reading.