Experts on countries of origin by country

Professor of International Studies at the University of Leeds with extensive knowledge of the human rights situation and asylum matters relating to political persecution and trafficking. Particular experience and expertise in relation to Vietnamese refugees (political activists, victims of trafficking and persons persecuted for religious activities, Chinese asylum seekers (adherents of persecuted religious groups, political activists and victims of trafficking), and applicants from Pakistan (applicants facing threats in relation to family honour,  issues relating to the blasphemy laws, sexual orientation, applicants facing threats from terrorists and due to their political activities such as members of the UKPNP). I am acknowledged as a leading expert on the Korean peninsula (North Korea and South Korea).  I also have considerable expertise in matters relating to asylum seekers from Iraq and Iran in relation to family honour, political activism and religious persecution. Among numerous publications, reference can be made to the book Security, Culture and Human Rights in South Asia and the Middle East, Global Research Publications 2019, a guide for country experts on the regions.

Barrister and academic, with extensive research, publishing and advisory experience in former Soviet Union and other countries, fluent in Russian

Dr. Christian 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. 

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

Melissa Chiovenda is an assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi. She has  been conducting research in Afghanistan since 2009. Dr. Chiovenda’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, Dr. Chiovenda 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.

Expert on Russia and Post-Soviet Countries, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Experienced scholar and consultant combining theoretical and practical skills of analysis, intelligence and policy advise with expertise in informal networks, organized crime, corruption, illicit trade, crime-terror nexus, policing and public sector reform

Dr. Logvinenko is an expert in autocratization, democracy, and rule-of-law institutions. He is a tenured Associate Professor of Diplomacy & World Affairs at Occidental College. His research and commentary have been published in highly regarded academic journals such as Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Democratization, European Journal of Politics and Gender, Europe-Asia Studies, and Russian Politics, among others. I have also contributed to popular publications such as The Washington Post. His first book, Global Finance and Local Control: Corruption and Wealth in Contemporary Russia, was published by Cornell University Press in 2021 and received the co-winner of the 2023 Best Book Award given by the International Political Economy section of the International Studies Association. He holds a doctorate in Government from Cornell University and has taught at Wellesley College, the Cornell-in-Washington Program, the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, and the Monterey Institute for International Studies. As a native of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, he studied Physics and Mathematics at Lyceum #61.

Marilisa Lorusso is a regular contributor to Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa, an Italian think tank and online magazine with approximately 5,000 daily views.

She has been deployed by the Italian Foreign Ministry as an expert for post-war civilian monitoring missions in Georgia. Additionally, she has served in a non-diplomatic capacity at the Geneva International Discussions on the Georgian peace settlement while based at the European Union Council in Brussels.

Kimberly Marten is a professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University, specializing in international relations, international security, environmental politics, and Russia. She is a faculty member and executive committee member of Columbia’s Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, and Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. Her recent publications have analyzed Russia’s Wagner Group “private” military company (she was honored to testify before Congress on that topic in 2020 and 2022), Russian activities in Latin America (she was honored to testify before Congress on that topic in 2022); Russian activities in Africa; Russia/NATO relations and the Russian reaction to NATO enlargement; and the politics of the changing Arctic. 

She has written four books, including Engaging the Enemy: Organization Theory and Soviet Military Innovation (Princeton, 1993), which received the Marshall Shulman Prize, and Warlords: Strong-Arm Brokers in Weak States (Cornell, 2012). The Council on Foreign Relations commissioned her special report, Reducing Tensions between Russia and NATO (2017). In addition to over 30 academic journal articles and book chapters, she has written more than 50 policy analyses in publications including the… Read more

Sayana Namsaraeva is a senior research associate at the Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit at the University of Cambridge. After graduating in China Studies at the University of Saint Petersburg, she did her MA degree in Comparative Ethnography at National Chengchi University (Taipei).  She was awarded a PhD degree  in Political and Cultural History of Pre-modern China at the Institute of Oriental Studies (Moscow, RAS), held research positions at Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology  (Halle, Germany) and taught as a lecturer at the Institute for Studies of Religions and the Central Asia at the University of Bern (Switzerland). Throughout her academic career spanning over twenty five  years, her research interests embrace a wide range of topics in Mongolian and China studies, Siberian Studies, Buryat Diasporas and Kinship, Migration and Border Studies, with a particular attention to North Asian borderlands. She teaches a course on ‘Borders and Borderlands in North Asia’ for Inner Asia Paper at the Department of Social Anthropology. 

She has served as a COI expert since 2018, responding to cases from Mongolian and Russian citizens. Based on more than twenty cases she reviewed, Sayana analytically summarized … Read more

Federica Prina is a Senior Lecturer in Security Studies at Central and East European Studies, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow. Prior to joining the University of Glasgow in 2014, she worked as a researcher at the European Centre for Minority Issues in Germany. Before completing her PhD, she spent ten years as a project manager and researcher in UK-based international human rights organizations, focusing particularly on issues related to freedom of expression and information. Her academic research specializes in the rights of national minorities in the Russian Federation.

Dr. Branislav Radeljic is a professor, consultant, and expert witness, focusing on European and Middle Eastern political and socioeconomic developments. He lectured for many years in the United Kingdom and, more recently, he has held professorships in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, he has held visiting appointments at Nebrija University in Madrid, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Radeljic has conducted research and provided specialized services to a broad range of clients, including government entities and non-governmental stakeholders. His work has involved thorough evaluations of governance regimes, institutional transparency and accountability, and prospects for increased citizen participation. He has conducted in-depth analyses of risk and conflict management, identifying effective strategies for mitigation and resolution. His expertise extends to examining regional cooperation initiatives and the roles of international organizations in facilitating collaborative efforts across borders.

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.

Dr. Hanna Vasilevich is a researcher and academic currently based at the International Centre for Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity Studies in Prague, where she serves as Board Chair. Dr. Vasilevich has been a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Law & Anthropology Department of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale, Germany. Before she worked at the European Centre for Minority Studies (Germany) and taught in a number of Universities in Czechia and Germany.