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Experts on countries of origin by surname

Saha, Devanik

Dr Devanik Saha is a Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Greenwich, London. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Essex working on migration, gendered violence and mental health. He holds a PhD from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.  His areas of expertise are gender, global public health, mental health, migration and refugee health, and political economy. He is also a prolific columnist having written on Indian politics, Hindu nationalism and public policy for prominent media outlets in India. He is also a recipient of the Global Talent Visa by the UK government, wherein he has been endorsed as an exceptional talent in the field of Global Health and Development. He has worked and consulted for different organizations such as Tetra Tech International, Duke NUS Medical School, BBC Media Action, UNICEF India, World Bank and other organizations.  In 2024, he was selected as Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London. He is also a Trustee and Board Member, Results UK, a charity focused on global health advocacy. He also advised the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) UK on various global health issues such as health systems strengthening, locally led development and emerging… Read more

Occupation:
Countries of expertise: India

Sandoval-Cervantes, Ivan

The Expert is a cultural anthropologist from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. He is an UDLAP alum, and obtained his PhD from the University of Oregon in 2016. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). In the Spring 2022 semester, He will be a Visiting Research Fellow at the Animal Law and Policy Program at Harvard Law School where he will be working on his project “Dead Letter”: Animal Law, Activism, and Mexican Politics," which is part of a new research on the animal rights movement in urban Mexico.

His research interests can be divided into two overlapping sub-fields. The first sub-field includes the anthropology of migration, particularly the analysis of internal and transnational migrations, gender (masculinity and femininity), indigeneity, kinship, and care. The second sub-field includes multi-species ethnography, legal anthropology and the anthropology of social movements, particularly through the study of activism and animal rights in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands.

Occupation: University Professor
Countries of expertise: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, United States of America

Seddon, Dr John David

Dr David Seddon is a social scientist with more than 40 years experience in Africa and the Middle East, and Nepal, who has produced around 500 country expert witness reports 

Occupation: Consultant
Countries of expertise: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nepal, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Senegal, Western Sahara

Serrano, Dr. Samantha

The Expert earned her Sc.D. in Collective Health from the Federal Medical School of São Paulo. Her research was the Bolivian immigrant women’s experiences in motherhood and family healthcare in São Paulo, Brazil. She has an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Her Master’s thesis was an institutional ethnography on the perceptions and treatments of the sexuality and sexual abuse of people with intellectual disabilities and mental illnesses in urban Guatemala.

The Expert has multiple international and domestic publications and has conducted fieldwork in the United States, Guatemala and Brazil. Her areas of specialization include: the social determinants of health, health systems and policies, immigrant healthcare, intercultural healthcare, primary healthcare access, healthcare and disability, transnational motherhood, sexual violence, domestic violence, ethnography and qualitative research methods.

Occupation: Social scientist, qualitative researcher, and data analyst
Countries of expertise: Brazil, Guatemala, United States of America

Shahtaj Juthi, Tasmina

I am a Barrister-at-Law of England and Wales, with tact and expertise in International Law or Treaties, Human Rights Law, Immigration Rules and Regulations of the United Kingdom, Asylum, Convention Rights International Relations between Bangladesh and other nations. I have recently completed my Master’s degree in Human Rights from London School of Economics and Political Science, where I gained in-depth understanding of the origin, background, objectives, and various aspects of human rights law.

Occupation: Barrister-at-Law of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn
Human Rights Activist, Bangladesh
Countries of expertise: Bangladesh

Shepard-Torres, Ronnie

The Expert is a university-trained social scientist with almost two decades' experience studying social conditions and disenfranchised peoples in Latin America with particular emphasis in the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru). With a decade of field research in Ecuador, The Expert has years of experience interviewing Ecuadorians in marginalized communities and is skilled in using traditional and mixed methods techniques. In addition to his Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, Shepard-Torres has also earned master's degrees in Anthropology and Latin American Studies, and certificates of graduate study in Human Rights and Gender & Sexuality Studies. In disparate roles including professor (of Anthropology, Latin American Studies, and Social Justice), HIV-AIDS case manager and NGO outreach worker, he has worked with underrepresented and/or marginalized populations both locally and abroad, conducting qualitative research and community outreach at the local and international levels. In addition to his work as a cultural anthropologist and scholar, his interest in culturally competent work within educational, governmental, and non-governmental organizations comes with connections to both domestic and international NGOs and training in motivational interviewing and… Read more

Occupation: Anthropologist
Countries of expertise: Ecuador

Smith, Dr Chris

The Expert has completed over 3,000 expert witness reports on Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Malaysia since 2005, primarily for the UK courts but also in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.  This has also included cases on terrorism and extradition. Oral expert evidence in all recent Sri Lankan Country Guidance cases from LP (2007) to KK & RS (2020).

Most recent one month research visit to Sri Lanka in March 2022 (Northern and Eastern Provinces).  It is usual to visit Sri Lanka and select countries in Asia each year for at least a month.  Strong emphasis on fieldwork and interviews with officials and in-country experts and focus upon risk and vulnerability on return.

Also, expertise on India, especially Tamil Nadu and Khalistan and LGBTQ issues generally.  Recent expert witness on high profile extradition cases in Hong Kong, London and New York.  Research visits to India, Pakistan and Malaysia are planned for 2023. 

Extensive field work and publications record in India from 1983, including my PhD on India’s defence industry and security sector (1988) and two year tenure at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies/United Nations University (Delhi) (1983-85).

Expert witness research trip planned for… Read more

Occupation: Independent Researcher
Countries of expertise: India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Smith, Lahra

The Expert is an Associate Professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University and the Director of the African Studies Program. She is a Political Scientist with a particular interest in citizenship, migration and political development in Africa. She is the author of Making Citizens in Africa: Ethnicity, Gender and National Identity in Ethiopia (Cambridge University Press, 2013), and her other publications have focused on the role of political institutions in addressing conflict based largely on ethnic and language identities.

Occupation: Associate Professor, African Studies, Georgetown University
Countries of expertise: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Smith Rotabi-Casares, Karen

The Expert is Professor of Social Work at California State University- Monterey Bay. She has extensive international experience, with an emphasis on Guatemala, El Salvador and Somalia. Her practice in these countries is oriented to child protection as well as violence against women. She has worked as an expert witness, mainly for Guatemala, but recent work in Somalia has expanded her area of expertise.  She has an extensive publication history, with an orientation to human rights.

Occupation: Professor
Countries of expertise: El Salvador, Guatemala, Somalia

Sturdee, Nick

BBC journalist, film-maker and broadcaster with extensive experience of travelling to and investigating human rights abuses in Russia, including Chechnya, Belarus and other parts of the former USSR. Also considerable experience working with victims of human rights abuses in location in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Israel / Palestine, China, Turkey and Cuba.

Occupation: BBC Journalist, documentary film-maker, broadcaster
Countries of expertise: Afghanistan, Belarus, Iraq, Myanmar, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Russia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

Sullivan, Noelle

The Expert is a medical and sociocultural anthropologist who has done ethnographic (fieldwork-based) research since 2005 on the history and present of Tanzania’s health care sector. She is one of few scholars with expertise on how Tanzania’s health sector has changed through time in the postcolonial period, and what these changes have meant for the health care workers, patients, and families in Tanzania who provide or rely on this care.

The Expert has expertise on the sector’s capacities for certain kinds of care (reproductive and child health, mental health, preventive services, surgical capacity, HIV/AIDS, pediatric care, cancer care, cardiology, etc.) and how this capacity affects quality of health care delivery for prospective patients. She can also provide information on gender-related issues in Tanzania, including traditional gender roles, some ethnic groups’ specific practices related to gender (including marriage practices, female genital cutting, relationships between families of married couples, polygamy, child rearing, etc.)  

Occupation: Professor, Northwestern University
Countries of expertise: Tanzania

Sultan Qader, Dr. Amer

Associate Professor, PhD in Modern History and Political Thought, Lecturer in University, Mentor, Dean Of college.

Occupation: DIRECTOR OF THE EDUCATION CONSULTANCY COMPANY
Countries of expertise: Iraq, Kuwait

Sultana, Jarin

The Expert is an Advocate from Bangladesh, holding substantial fieldwork experience within the country. She earned her LLB (Hons) from the University of London and completed her LLM (Master of Law) with a specialization in Victimology and Restorative Justice at Dhaka University.

She has attended various training programs, including "Transitional Justice in Asia and Participatory Research Tools with Survivors" organized by the Centre for the Study of Genocide and Justice, and "Human Rights and Gender Relation Analysis" organized by Ain o Shalis Kendra. Her expertise lies in Bangladeshi society and culture, particularly in the realms of Bangladeshi politics, human rights (focusing on gender and sexuality), and the rights of religious minorities (Hindus, Christians, Atheists). `

The Expert has actively contributed to research, advisory, and consultancy projects in Bangladesh, concentrating on formal and informal justice systems, freedom of speech, political rights, anti-corruption measures, violence against women, and minority rights. She maintains a robust network of experts throughout Bangladesh for document verification and is available to provide oral testimony in any court or tribunal, if necessary, to support her expert opinions.

Occupation: Advocate, Researcher, Human Right Activist, Lecturer
Countries of expertise: Bangladesh, United Kingdom