Experts on countries of origin by country
Anderson, Dr Danica
The Expert is a US-based international social scientist, researcher, and forensic counselor (criminal justice specialist) with a doctorate in clinical psychology. The Expert is a member of the UNESCO scientific and education CID council and of the International Criminal Court, a Psycho-social Victim Gender Expert for trauma with war crimes and war crimes survivors. She is a trauma clinician who has traveled the world bearing witness to―and researching how to heal transgenerational trauma and continues to make crisis responses while addressing the needs of immigrants and refugees during and in the aftermath of natural disasters and wars. Trauma response and social science and research fieldwork occurred in Afghanistan, Haiti, India, Sri Lanka, and many conflict-ridden regions and war regions.
The Expert's international trauma work occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa for the International Criminal Court and the United Nations World Food Program in Sudan. In former Yugoslavia, Bosnia Herzegovina, her study and clinically informed trauma for over two decades provided an archive of information on women's transgenerational trauma for war and war crimes survivors involving asylum and visas. The Expert worked with Mexico's National Human Rights, Mexico City, and the Mexican… Read more
Chiovenda, Andrea
The Expert is an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He received his PhD in anthropology from Boston University in 2015. His ethnographic fieldwork research was carried out in Afghanistan from 2009 until 2013, and again in 2016, and focused on the psychological impact of cultural norms of masculinity among Pashtun men. In 2020,
The Expert published a book based on this research, entitled Crafting Masculine Selves: Culture, War and Psychodynamics in Afghanistan (Oxford University Press, 2020), which won the 2021 Boyer Prize for contributions to psychoanalytic anthropology, from the Society for Psychological Anthropology. Additionally, he published several articles and book chapters in peer-reviewed academic journals and edited volumes on conflict, violence, and gender relations in Afghanistan. Since 2016, The Expert has been carrying out original ethnographic research in Greece, investigating the psychological impact of the migratory experience among Afghan refugees in the country.
Christian, Dr. Patrick James
The Expert is a psychoanalytical anthropologist of violent ethnic & cultural conflict in Eurasia, South Asia, Middle East, Central and South America, West Africa, North Africa and the Horn of Africa with experience working in military, diplomatic, and humanitarian interventions in intra-state violent conflicts.
Fair, Carol
The Expert is a Professor in the Security Studies Program within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She previously served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and a senior research associate at the United States Institute of Peace. Her most recent book is In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2018/2019). She has authored, co-authored and co-edited several books, including Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War (Oxford University Press); Pakistan’s Enduring Challenges (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents (Oxford University Press, 2014); Political Islam and Governance in Bangladesh (Routledge, 2010); Treading on Hallowed Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations in Sacred Spaces (Oxford University Press, 2008); The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan (USIP, 2008), and The Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States (Globe Pequot, 2008), among others.
She is a member of Women in International Security, International Studies Association, American Political Science… Read more
Fatah, Dr Rebwar
The Expert has worked as an expert witness on the Middle East, producing Country Expert Reports (CER) for the past 20 years.
The Expert has produced on average between 200-300 reports each year on the MENA region for British, European, and US courts.
The Expert’s areas of expertise include tribal issues, gender-based violence, security issues, extremist groups and militias, human rights law and violations, the situation for minorities, trafficking, and the availability of medical services. In addition to CERs,
The Expert also authenticates documents from the region, and conducts nationality and ethnicity reports in order to assess the likely origin of an individual within MENA.
The Expert is able to conduct nationality assessments in Arabic, Farsi, Sorani, and Bahdini/Kurmanji.
Foxley, Tim
The Expert has been studying Afghanistan since 2001 as a UK government political and military analyst and also at the world-acclaimed international think-tank, SIPRI, in Stockholm. He has produced more than 900 Afghanistan Expert Reports for over 150 British and American law firms. He is very responsive to short notice deadlines, has a quick turnaround time and he is very happy to discuss early initial thoughts to assist you and your client at no obligation. He has excellent impartial research, analysis and communication skills and was awarded an MBE for his Afghanistan work in 2005.
Performance feedback – judges:
“I have carefully considered the report of Mr Tim Foxley MBE…I accept that Mr Foxley is an expert. I give weight to his CV. The report complies with the practice direction. He demonstrates a clear understanding of his duties as an expert and his duty to the court…The respondent does not challenge his expertise…The cogent observations of Mr Foxley carry weight. “
(First Tier Tribunal Judge, January 2024)
“Mr Tim Foxley is a well established expert witness who has eighteen years’ experience of studying Afghanistan…His report is objectively written and thoroughly sourced. It is an impressive piece of evidence. I am not… Read more
Gabbay, Shaul
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.
Giustozzi, Dr. Antonio
Haqpal, Nazifa
The Expert is a former Afghan diplomat and PhD Candidate in law at SOAS University of London and have extensive knowledge from her PhD research and Country of Origin reports and documents assessment. She specialises on human rights, Islamic and customary laws, and gender related issues with a specific focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan. She is also an Associate member in the Practicing Category as a Country of Origin Expert with the Academy of Experts.
Hassan Zadeh, Dr Jawad
Dr Jawad Hassan Zadeh is an Expert Witness with experience of working in Afghanistan’s and Pakistan’s affairs. As of February 2022, he has prepared 1,128 expert reports for over 200 law firms and non-legal organisations based in France, Greece, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States of America. The Expert provides three services concerning cases from Afghanistan (1) country of origin expert opinions on human rights, culture, ethnic groups, religions, laws, government and non-state actors (2) conducts forensic examination of all types of documents originating from Afghanistan (3) interviews the ‘disputed nationality’ claimants from Afghanistan with a view of producing linguistic and nationality of the disputed clients.
The expert provides country expert reports for Pakistan, conducts nationality assessment interviews for Pakistani nationals whose nationality and origin are disputed and verifies the authenticity of Pakistani documents.
Hoehne-Turaeva, Dr. Rano
The Expert is a Country Expert and academic with extensive fieldwork expeirience and providing expert reports (100+) for more than 40 firms in the UK, US, Netherlands, and Canada with areas of expertise such as but not limited to:
- Authentication documents originating from countries of expertise
- Country reports on the indicated countries of expertise
- Minority groups, religious groups
- Political, social and cultural groups: LGBT
- Organized crime and mafia, state crime
- Extremist and violent groups, including religious groups
- Human rights violations
- Women issues: honor killing
- Human trafficking
- Psychiatry and prison conditions
- Disadvantaged groups e.g. children, minorities, mentally ill, disabled, terminally ill
- Availability of medical services
- State structure, military and security services
- Drug dealing and trafficking
Imam, Amna
Dr Imam brings more than two decades of experience in mixed methods international social science practice, research, and teaching around the world, focusing on East and West Africa, South Asia, USA, and Central Asia. Her interests involve research, development, and instruction on advanced issues of human rights, international conventions on human, civil, and political rights, and against torture; police service, judicial and quasi-judicial institutions, and persecution; grievance redressal arrangements; gender analysis, gender equality, gender-based violence, forced marriages, and sexual abuse; child abuse, child marriages, and violence against children; climate-related issues; and more. She has written books and scholarly articles about public administration, employing quantitative data and qualitative streams of historical changes in socioeconomic, judicial, political, and administrative institutions.
Her work employs innovative research methodologies, focusing on getting to the crux of socio-cultural and institutional situations to deliver efficient solutions that take into account complex dynamics involving human rights, child rights, gender equality, sustainability, and other such standards, in diverse socio-political contexts.
Kerr Chiovenda, Melissa Skye
The Expert is an assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi. She has been conducting research in Afghanistan since 2009. The Expert’s main research in Afghanistan concerned ethnic Hazara civil society movements and the transmission of cultural trauma. Her earlier research in Afghanistan concerned Pashtun women who were working with Western NGOs. She has a PhD from the University of Connecticut in anthropology, an MA from Georgetown University in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies with a Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Crises, and a BS in Russian Language and Literature from Georgetown University. Since 2016, She has been conducting research on the political identity of Afghan, mainly Hazara, refugees in Greece and Italy. She has also started projects concerning the Hazara genocide of the late 1800s, and sexual violence historically and currently experienced by Hazara women.
Prior to working in academia, The Expert was a high school teacher in South Los Angeles. She also worked for United States exchange programs in Russia, was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and spent a summer teaching children at an organization in Nablus, West Bank.
Mehmood, Dr Maryyum
The Expert is an internationally renowned and award-winning academic and consultant specialising in violence against women and minorities, and racial and religious persecution in the South Asia and Muslim majority countries.
Mohammad Ali, Syed
Syed Mohammad Ali is a lecturer for the MA in Global Security Studies program ay Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Ali has a PhD in development anthropology, and he has extensive experience working with multilateral, bilateral, government, and non-government organizations on varied international development challenges.
Besides teaching, Dr. Ali is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C., and he is a Non-Resident Faculty member affiliated with the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore. He is also the author of several peer-reviewed articles, half a dozen book chapters, as well as the book Development, Poverty and Power in Pakistan: The Impact of State and Donor Interventions on Farmers, published by Routledge in 2015. His other publications include numerous policy papers for leading think-tanks including the United States Institute of Peace and the Middle East Institute.
Dr. Ali writes a weekly op-ed in the Express Tribune, an affiliate of the New York Times in Pakistan, since 2011. He regularly participates in panel discussions on several Pakistani news channels, as well as on international media outlets including Al Jazeera, China Global Television Network, Channel NewsAsia, Voice of America’s televised Urdu Service programs… Read more
Nasim, Foiza
Country Research Specialist & NGO Program Manager for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The expert has 15 years of planning, management, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting experience in both domestic and international development including gender justice, conflict and security, education, children’s rights, and economic governance projects. Worked in Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Familiar with donor reporting for major bilateral and multilateral agencies including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).
Panjwani, Dr Imranali
Dr. Imranali Panjwani is the Head of Diverse Legal Consulting, UK (www.diverselegal.com) and a Lecturer in Law at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, Essex. He has the unique combination of being a lawyer and academic having lived and worked in the UK, Middle East and Australia. His country expert reports draw upon primary country and theological sources with stringent analysis of evidence, law and language. He resides in the UK.
Phelps, Dr. Sandra
The Expert is a Gender & Social Inclusion International Development specialist across multiple global south countries - She holds a Ph.D. in Gender & Postcolonial Studies, University of Sydney, Australia, 2005.
The Expert is an experienced senior consultant and academic with 15+ years in educational program design and management across humanitarian and development sectors, including democracy, education, civil society, and government collaboration in diverse global regions. Her expertise in creating effective development programs with a focus on inclusion and sustainable livelihoods.
Rahimi, Sadeq
The Expert’s research and publication interests have covered diverse aspects of culture, health and subjectivity ranging from collective self-esteem and perception of racism to schizophrenia and culture, political subjectivity, radicalization, clinical trials, behavioral economics, and artificial intelligence.