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Daniel Mekonnen

Daniel Mekonnen is a Geneva-based Independent Consultant for International Human Rights Law and International Refugee Law. In various other contexts, he has served as a researcher, adjudicator, trainer, and grassroots campaigner. He has lived and worked in a total of eleven countries (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, the UK and Switzerland). Formerly and among other things, he was Judge of the Central Provincial Court in Asmara, and has also served as a Senior Legal Advisor at a former Norwegian entity, known as International Law and Policy Institute (ILPI).

Name
Daniel Mekonnen
Occupation
Independent Consultant
Expertise

Child soldiers, Deportees/criminal deportees, Disability, Document Authentication, Ethnic discrimination or persecution, Ex-combatant reintegration, Female genital mutilation/circumcision/FGC, Forced conscription, Forced marriage, Gender-based violence/domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, Journalist persecution, Military/police service, Political persecution, Prison conditions, Religious discrimination or persecution, Government/state actor persecution, Risk of retaliation, Sexual abuse/assault, Sufficiency of protection, Torture, Trafficking, Tribal discrimination or persecution, Violence against children/child abuse

Experience

I have written more than 100 COI expert reports, including sworn statements/affidavits, to numerous immigration lawyers from different countries. The overwhelming majority of my expert reports are on country conditions in Eritrea. I have also written some on Ethiopia.

Publications

Kjetil Tronvoll & Daniel Mekonnen, The African Garrison State: Human Rights and Political Development in Eritrea (James Currey/Boydell & Brewer, 2nd. rev. ed. 2017).

Daniel Mekonnen, “The Right to Cross-Border Identity of Individuals with Eritrean and Ethiopian Ancestry: International and Comparative Law Perspectives,” Ethiopian Yearbook of International Law / Springer Publishing (2019), pp. 49-79. 

Daniel Mekonnen, “The Case for Crimes Against Humanity in Eritrea: Assessing the Reports of the Two UN Fact Finding Missions,” Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies, 2016, 7(2), pp. 221-256. 

Daniel Mekonnen, “The Potential Use of Artificial Intelligence in a Nuclear Weapon Context and the Need to Advance a New Set of Norms,” in Jonathan L. Black-Branch & Dieter Fleck (eds.), Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law: Nuclear Disarmament and Security at Risk – Legal Challenges in a Shifting Nuclear World, Volume VI (Springer/Asser Press, 2021), pp. 305-329. 

Daniel Mekonnen, “African Perspectives on Denuclearisation and the Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes,” in Jonathan L. Black-Branch & Dieter Fleck (eds.), Non-Proliferation in International Law: Legal Issues of Non-Proliferation, Disarmament and the Right to Nuclear Energy, Volume IV (Springer/Asser Press, 2019), pp. 167-187. 

Sara Arapiles & Daniel Mekonnen, “Family Reunification for ‘Paperless’ Eritrean Refugees: A Pie in the Sky or a Realisable Right?,” in Ellen Desmet et al (eds.), Family Reunification in Europe: Exposing Inequalities (Routledge, 2024), pp. 209-224. 

Daniel Mekonnen & Mirjam van Reisen, “The EU Lisbon Treaty and EU Development Cooperation: Considerations for a Revised EU Strategy on Development Cooperation in Eritrea” Law and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America / Verfassung und Recht in Übersee 45(3) (2012): 324–344. 

Daniel Mekonnen, “Patterns of Legal Mixing in Eritrea: Examining the Impact of Customary Law, Islamic Law, Colonial Law, Socialist Law and Authoritarian Revolutionary Dogma” in Vernon Palmer et al (eds.), Mixed Legal Systems, East and West (Ashgate Publishing: Surrey, 2015), pp. 151-166.

Tricia Redecker-Hepner & Daniel Mekonnen, “‘Justice Futures’: Forensic Investigation and the Potential for Transformation in Eritrea,” Modern Africa, (2022) 10(1), pp. 117-144.

Daniel Mekonnen, “Contested Versions of Collective Memory in Post-Independence Eritrea” African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review (2013) 3(2): 151-170. 

Daniel Mekonnen, “Indigenous Legal Tradition as A Supplement to African Transitional Justice Initiatives,” African Journal on Conflict Resolution (2010) 10(3): 101–123.. 

Daniel Mekonnen & Loot Pretorius, “Prosecuting the Main Perpetrators of International Crimes in Eritrea: Possibilities under International Law,” Journal for Juridical Science 2008 33(2): 76–108. 

Daniel Mekonnen, “The Reply of the Eritrean Government to ACHPR’s Landmark Ruling on Eritrea:  A Critical Appraisal,” Journal for Juridical Science 2006 31(2): 26–56.

Languages
English, Amharic, Tigrinya (fluent); French (intermediate)
Ethnic groups expertise
All ethnic groups in Eritrea; Amara, Oromo & Tigrinya in Ethiopia
Political groups expertise
Major political groups in Eritrea & Ethiopia
Religious groups expertise
Major religious groups in Eritrea & Ethiopia
Other social groups expertise
Major social groups in Eritrea & Ethiopia
Phone
[Private to EIN members]
Address
[Private to EIN members]