Licensed attorney (Juris Doctor, admitted to the Philippine Bar) and human rights researcher specialising in political opinion, religion, ethnicity, gender-based and LGBT cases, and nationality across Southeast Asia. Specialises in country expert reports, document verification, nationality assessments and expert testimony in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Name
Dr Neapolle Fleur Blanco
Occupation
Country Witness Expert on Southeast Asia, Human Rights and Constitutional Law
Expertise
Independent country conditions analysis across Southeast Asia for asylum and international protection claims.
Areas of expertise include:
- Political persecution and political opinion
- Opposition activity and treatment of activists
- Treatment of journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders
- Persecution of ethnic and religious minorities
- Gender-based violence and discrimination against women and girls
- LGBTQ+ (sexual orientation and gender identity) claims
- Extrajudicial killings and state violence
- Enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention
- Prison and detention conditions
- Criminalisation of political dissent under national-security, lèse-majesté and anti-terror legislation
- Suppression of civil society, independent media and NGOs
- Nationality and statelessness
- Risks to migrants and persons in irregular status
- Land-grabbing, forced evictions and land-rights disputes
- Human trafficking
- Corruption, impunity and rule-of-law failures
Experience
- Preparation of expert witness reports for asylum, immigration and human rights cases in the UK and the US
- Provision of oral expert testimony before UK and US courts and tribunals
- Verification and authentication of documents and country-specific evidence
- Nationality and statelessness assessments
- Licensed attorney admitted to the Philippine Bar, with practice in civil, labour, criminal, corporate and human rights litigation
- Compliance and data-privacy work in the corporate and financial sectors (AML/CTF, corporate governance)
- Public-service experience on land rights and social justice policy
- Advocacy and legal-aid work on gender-based violence, women's rights and human rights litigation
Publications
- Military Rule and Crackdowns Push Burmese Citizens to Seek Asylum
- Suppression of Dissent Encourages Migration from Vietnam
- Cambodia: Human Rights Conditions and Protection Failures Under Authoritarian Governance
- Laos: Human Rights Conditions Under One-Party Rule and Restricted Civic Space
- Indonesia: Human Rights Challenges, Political Policing, and Civic Space Restrictions
- Thailand: Political Repression, Lèse-Majesté Laws, and Risks to Dissenters
- Timor-Leste: Human Rights Conditions in a Post-Conflict State
- Malaysia: Human Rights Conditions, Security Laws, and Restrictions on Civil Liberties
Languages
Filipino (Native), English (Fluent)
Ethnic groups expertise
Bamar, Rohingya, Karen, Kachin, Shan and other ethnic minorities of Myanmar; Papuans; Filipino ethnolinguistic communities including Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Moro (Bangsamoro) and indigenous Lumad peoples; Khmer, Vietnamese, Lao, Thai, Malay, Chinese-descent minorities; Tamil, Orang Asli and other indigenous and minority communities across Southeast Asia
Political groups expertise
Opposition members, civil society activists, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, women’s-rights and LGBT advocates, student and pro-democracy activists, former officials and dissidents at risk under military or authoritarian rule (particularly in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam), political detainees, and individuals at risk for their real or imputed political views or affiliations
Religious groups expertise
Buddhists (including Theravada communities), Muslims (Sunni, Shia and Moro/Bangsamoro communities), Catholic and Protestant Christians, Hindus, followers of traditional and indigenous religions, secularists and apostates
Other social groups expertise
Refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons; internally displaced persons; women and girls at risk, including victims of gender-based and domestic violence; LGBTQ+ individuals; victims of human trafficking; indigenous and land-rights defenders; survivors of extrajudicial killings, red-tagging and state surveillance; migrants and workers in irregular status; and individuals targeted under anti-terror, lèse-majesté and national-security legislation
Fees
[Private to EIN members]
Contact email
Address
[Private to EIN members]