Experts on countries of origin by country

Human rights lawyer with 30 years’ full-time work on human rights in Haiti, currently the Executive Director of the US-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Average 20 reports and 5 live testimonies per year, in immigration court, civil and criminal cases, appearing for immigration applicants, people facing sentencing and the government. Expertise includes political violence, gender-based violence, LGBQTI+ persecution, CAT claims.

Dr. Francesca Conti is a sociologist, academic, and researcher specializing in migration, identity, and resilience studies. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Sussex University, an MPhil from Cambridge University, and a BA from SOAS, University of London. Since 2012, she has been an adjunct professor and academic advisor at The American University of Rome, teaching courses in sociology, anthropology, and migration studies. Her research spans a broad range of interdisciplinary topics, including auto-ethnography, chronic pain management, and the intersection of sport and migration. In addition to her academic role, Dr. Conti has contributed to migration-related projects for different  international organizations. 

A distinguished legal expert and career diplomat with over 20 years of experience specializing in international law, foreign affairs, and strategic litigation. Throughout his career, he has served in senior leadership roles within Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including as Head of Legal Affairs at the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles, Strategic Litigation Research Director, and Head of Private International Law, Trade, and Foreign Investment. 

His expertise spans international litigation, diplomatic law, civil registry functions, human rights, private international law, extradition, treaty negotiations, and international cooperation. He has advised on the legal dimensions of complex international incidents, foreign investment risks, cross-border judicial cooperation, and major international advisory proceedings, including those related to climate change obligations. Earlier in his career, he clerked at the International Criminal Court and contributed to key legal frameworks within the Hague Conference on Private International Law. 

Recognized for his strategic foresight, negotiation skills, and legal acumen, he has played a critical role in safeguarding Mexico’s interests in international forums, strengthening legal cooperation… Read more

Cintia Cruz has extensive research experience, including one and a half years at the Gender and Race Department at UC Berkeley. They earned a PhD in Gender and Women’s Studies at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. Their thesis, defended in 2019, “Trails of Black Women,” centered on the comparative self-esteem of Black women in Oakland, California, and Salvador, Brazil. After receiving their doctorate, they served at the United Nations: Joint Program on the Eradication of Child Marriage and Early Unions in Latin America and the Caribbean (2021); The Project to Prevent Pregnancy among Teenagers at the Triple Border, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay (2019). 

Dr. Cruz became broadly familiar with the numerous and varying structural impediments and cultural practices constraining girls’ mainly black and Indigenous, in the region. They hold a Master’s degree in Social Sciences and gather an academic trajectory strongly defined by the alignment of project management and research wo to enhance marginalized communities’ autonomy. In 2022, as a national consultant for UNICEF, they delivered the Brazilian report to the Summit Education at the United Nations General Assembly 2022, entitled The Map of Hope to Transform Education in Brazil. In 2020, Dr. Cruz was the… Read more

Dimitris Dalakoglou is a Full Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is one of the top cited authors on Balkan studies and Eastern European studies. His research focuses on Albania and Greece and he has authored over a hundred publications including expert reports, book monographs, peer-reviewed articles, and documentary films. His research has been featured in several international media including the Guardian, Channel 4, Washington Times. He is a COI expert for Albania and Greece since 2014 in the Right to Exile Programme and has provided expertise reports since 2008.

Dr. Daryn is a social anthropologist (Ph.D. Cambridge 2002), with expertise on the culture, society, history, and politics of South Asia. His acquaintance with South Asia spans over 36 years, including 18 years of living in Nepal and India. Dr. Daryn’s experience includes prolonged spells of fieldwork and research in Nepal, as well as work in various international organisations there. As a British Academy postdoctoral fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (The University of London, 2003-6) Dr. Daryn  also taught the MA course: “The Anthropology of South Asia”. He became closely acquainted with asylum seekers, including Bangladeshis, Burmese, Tibetans, Sri Lankan and Pakistanis, while working in UNHCR’s Kathmandu office (Nepal) during 2008-9 as an Associate Durable Solutions Officer. In this capacity Dr. Daryn went through UNHCR’s Country of Origin information on south asian countries, read in detail many private refugee files, and became familiar with the RSD process. Furthermore, Dr. Daryn also conducted focus group discussions and interviews with many refugees, and held detailed discussions with them. Since then, he has been focusing on the study of human rights in South Asian countries. From 2005 onwards, Dr. Daryn has served as an Expert Witness in… Read more

The Expert is an academic researcher with expertise in studying Nigeria and also Chad, Cameroon and Niger – they primarily focus in their research on politics and religion in Nigeria. The Expert has more than a decade’s worth of experience in conducting research in West-Central Africa.

I am a social and medical anthropologist who has worked in the field of global health for over 25 years.  I lived in Eastern and Southern Africa for 22 years, where I worked with government and other institutions including NGOs, the National Institute for Health Research (Tanzania), the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Research Programme (Malawi).  I have extensive experience of social and health related research and fieldwork in rural and urban communities.  I have conducted fieldwork in medical anthropology on social and health risks including on treatment seeking, disease interpretation, traditional religio-cultural beliefs, social networks, social status (reputation), social position, stigma and discrimination.   

I am a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Global Research Professor based within the Department of Global Health and Development at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).  I have a portfolio of research across geographies and diseases with a primary focus on sub-Saharan Africa and am strongly committed to supporting capacity strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa.  I hold a number of external positions including on funding panels and the World Health Organisation (WHO) HIV… Read more

Precious Diagboya, Philosopher by training, from University of Ibadan and is also a Senior Research Fellow of IFRA, Nigeria. Her research focuses on migration policies, gender based violence, and human trafficking from Nigeria to Europe. She has been involved in several international research projects, including with IFRA, but also with UNODC, African Union Commission, Global initiative for transnational organized crime, and the European Commission, on human trafficking practices. She conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork, both in Nigeria and in Europe. Her current work focuses on the aftermath of human trafficking from Nigeria to Europe and the understanding of migration and mobility patterns in Nigeria.

An accomplished nonprofit leader, educator, and human rights advocate with over 15 years of experience driving community development, public health initiatives, and social justice programs across Belize and the United States. Specializes in behavior change communication, human rights documentation, sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR), anti-trafficking coordination, and youth empowerment. A certified primary educator with experience in both Belize and the U.S. educational systems, with a strong background in curriculum development, multigrade instruction, and leadership within multicultural settings. Skilled in organizational governance, strategic planning, research methodologies, and advocacy for marginalized groups. Recognized for bridging grassroots mobilization with policy-level impact, and for fostering collaboration among government, civil society organizations, and international agencies.

Dr. Kristen Drybread is an anthropologist specializing in Latin American studies; political and legal anthropology; studies of race, gender and sexuality; and international prison studies. She is currently a graduate writing specialist and lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Drybread earned her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Columbia University and has held postdoctoral research appointments at the Center for the Study of Violence at the University of São Paulo and in the Drugs, Security, and Democracy Program of the Social Science Research Council. She has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Brazilian prisons, courts, drug treatment centers, and children’s shelters. Her research addresses topics including gender-based violence, political corruption and white collar crime, drug trafficking and treatment, children’s rights, and prison administration. 

Darlène Dubuisson is a Haitian-American anthropologist specializing in political and legal anthropology, transnational and migration studies, and Haitian Studies.

Dr. Dubuisson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Anthropology. She holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Anthropology from Columbia University and a MA in International Educational Development from Teachers College, Columbia University. She has ten years' research experience on Haitian migrants, immigrants, and refugees and is currently working on a co-authored manuscript on Haitian temporary protected status (TPS) holders. 

Kendra Dupuy is a social science researcher and Assistant Professor of African politics. She has expertise with quantitative & qualitative research on energy, climate change, environment, natural resource management, democracy, human rights, civil society, education, and forced migration. She is a certified project manager, technical writer, and program & project evaluator. She has has deep expertise in the African region and specifically on countries in West Africa, East Africa, southern Africa, and the DR Congo.

Elizabeth Durham is a medical and political anthropologist who has been working in the Republic of Cameroon since 2012, and providing refugee and asylum support through country-of-origin expertise since 2013. She specializes in expert reports on HIV/AIDS and mental illness in Cameroon, and on the conflict commonly known as the Anglophone Crisis. She holds a PhD in anthropology from Princeton University and is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and a Fellow in the Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Dr. Ecke’s work has been informed by years of experiences conducting research for organizations in Africa, with extended stays of conducting qualitative research in African countries (Liberia, Ghana and South Sudan), the Middle East, the US and Europe. Given the breadth and depth of these experiences, he has gathered invaluable experiences in assessing the situation of forced migrants in their country of origin (post-return), as well as in host-countries in western countries and Africa. The professional experiences in areas of conflict (South Sudan and very briefly, Iraq) and Liberia, a post-conflict society, has given him an acute appreciation of the risks that displaced populations face. They have also compelled him to widely publish on conflict-dynamics in countries of origin. Dr. Ecke hopes to enhance understanding of conflicts and displacement to improve policies and address their underlying structural causes.

Abubakr Elnoor is an expert in law, conflict analysis, linguistics, and language education, with extensive academic and professional experience in both Sudan and the United States.

He was born in Darfur, Sudan, and holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Khartoum. He passed the Sudanese Bar Exam and became a certified attorney, later serving as a lecturer at the University of Dongola.

Dr. Elnoor has over a decade of experience in language instruction and cultural training. He has served in multiple roles at the Defense Language Institute, including Assistant Professor of Arabic, Academic Specialist, and Acting Site Director. In these roles, he taught Arabic language and culture, with a focus on honor-based disputes, ethnic and sectarian tensions, and the cultural drivers of conflict in the Middle East and Africa. He also led teams of language and cultural experts, developed curriculum on East African societies, and trained U.S. military personnel in cultural awareness and mediation.

He earned his Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University, where he also served as a Teaching Assistant and Community Resolution Specialist. He holds several… Read more

Dr. María Alejandra Espinosa is a Mexican archaeologist. She earned her PhD in archaeology from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, where she focused her research on native and indigenous cultures from the south of Mexico. She conducted her post-doctoral research on indigenous Mayan cultures and carried out her fieldwork in various states throughout Mexico. 

Dr. Espinosa is a former Professor of Anthropology at the Autonomous Yucatan University, Mexico, and has worked with vulnerable adolescent girls who have been victims of child trafficking within the country of Mexico. Her areas of specialization include domestic violence, education, child trafficking and social inequalities. She is the former co-founder of the school Nek’il Kuxtal, located in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, which aims to eliminate economic disparity in primary education. Dr. Espinosa currently resides in a Mayan community in the south of Mexico, where she established a non-profit equestrian association to help vulnerable people, through horse connections. She is dedicated to mitigating structural poverty and gender-based violence throughout Mexico.   

C. Christine Fair 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… Read more

Dr. Daanish Faruqi is a Visiting Researcher at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.  A scholar of migration and mobility in the Middle East and North Africa, he has leveraged his expertise both in academia and in international development. At Georgetown he researches democracy promotion and conflict resolution through transnational religious humanitarianism. Relying on fieldwork with transnational humanitarian NGOS immediately following the 2023 Syrian/Turkish earthquake, his latest writing deals with the viability of religious humanitarianism in effectively managing refugee crises. He has a forthcoming interview with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on this project and its potential for peace building.

He completed his Ph.D. from Duke University, where he wrote his dissertation on the role of Syrian Sufi religious scholars in joining the 2011 uprising against Bashar al-Assad. Through several years of ethnographic and historical fieldwork in Morocco, Turkey, and Jordan, conducting hundreds of Arabic-language interviews, his work revealed the role of 19th century migration from North Africa to Damascus in informing contemporary… Read more

The expert is an experienced academic, researcher, and consultant specializing in social sciences, law, international relations, and peace studies. Expertise in territorial inequalities, peacebuilding, criminality, and international drug control policies.