Georgian lawyer and ACCORD-certified Country of Origin Information researcher. Served as UNHCR COI Researcher for the Tbilisi City Court and Tbilisi Court of Appeals (2018 to 2020) and as COI consultant to the Common Courts of Georgia (2020 to 2025), and trains judges and legal aid lawyers on COI research and refugee law. Covers political opinion and opposition activity, ethnic and religious minorities, LGBTQ+ claims, gender-based and domestic violence, human trafficking, military service evasion and conscientious objection, and displacement from Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh, across the South Caucasus, Central Asia and the wider post-Soviet region. Works in Georgian, Russian, English and German.
Independent country of origin and human rights analysis across the post-Soviet region: the South Caucasus, including the occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Central Asia, and Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, for asylum and international protection claims.
Areas of expertise include:
Country of Origin Information research and assessment (ACCORD-certified)
Political opinion: opposition members and supporters, civil society activists, human rights defenders, journalists and anti-government protesters
Internal displacement: persons displaced by the Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts, their right to return and compensation, and property rights in the occupied territories
Ethnicity: Abkhaz, Ossetians, Yazidis, Kurds, Assyrians, Kists of the Pankisi Gorge, Talysh, Lezgins and other minority communities of the South Caucasus
Religion: Muslim communities, Yazidis, Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestants and Catholics, and converts or persons accused of apostasy
Gender-based and domestic violence, LGBTQ+ claims and human trafficking
Military service: persons evading service, conscientious objectors and those at risk of mobilisation
Labour migration, migration policy and the position of returnees and deportees
Freedom of expression, and European Court of Human Rights appeal procedures
Regional coverage of Central Asia, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus through migration policy and labour migration work with the GIZ Global Programme Shaping Development-Oriented Migration, and through research and source verification in Russian across the post-Soviet space
I specialise in:
COI research and expert assessments to support courts and asylum procedures
Preparation of country conditions reports for asylum and immigration proceedings
Legal analysis and report preparation on refugee, migration and human rights matters
Training of judges, legal aid lawyers, court staff and NGO staff on COI research and refugee law
Over a decade in international refugee law, migration policy and human rights.
UNHCR Consultant and COI Researcher for the Tbilisi City Court and Tbilisi Court of Appeals (2018 to 2020), producing objective country of origin analyses for judicial and asylum procedures.
Consultant on COI to the Common Courts of Georgia (2020 to 2025), and trainer for Legal Aid Service lawyers and the Common Courts of Georgia on Researching Country of Origin Information.
Regular and Regional Migration Advisor, GIZ Global Programme Shaping Development-Oriented Migration (2023 to present); National Long-Term Expert, GOPA Worldwide Consultants (2020 to 2022); Programme Manager, Migration for Development, GIZ and CIM (2015 to 2017); Lawyer at the Georgian Center for Security and Development.
Earlier internships with UNHCR and the Embassy of Georgia in Germany.
LL.M., University of Potsdam (2012 to 2014); Magister and Bachelor in Legal Science, Tbilisi State University.
ACCORD-certified in COI research; training in international refugee and migration law at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, Sanremo; international human rights law and freedom of expression with Amnesty International and the Free University of Georgia.
The European Model of Labor Migration Management: Modern Challenges of Balancing State Interests and Human Rights and Georgia (2023), in Human Rights Protection: European Experience and National Challenges (Georgian).
The Problematic Aspects in Georgian Legislation Concerning Labor Migration, Master thesis, Tbilisi State University (Georgian, 2017).
Property Rights in the Occupied Territories under Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights (Georgian, 2015), incl. IDPs from Tskhinvali/South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Georgian Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) under International Law – Their Right to Return and Right to Compensation, LL.M. thesis, University of Potsdam (German, 2014).
Middle East Conflict in the Framework of International Law (German, 2013), legal basis for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Indispensable Repulse and a Right of Self Defense, exchange-programme prize paper, Humboldt University of Berlin (German, 2011).