Email: b.bowring@bbk.ac.uk

Prof Bill Bowring has experience in Tajikistan dating back to the late 1990s when he worked in Dushanbe as an expert for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE. He advised on the draft Criminal Procedural Code of Tajikistan, and on Tajikistan’s ratification of the ICCPR and Convention Against Torture. In the course of Prof Bowring’s work he has engaged in detailed discussion and drafting activity with a range of senior government officials, academic experts, and representatives of civil society. He has maintained close connections with well-informed interlocutors to ensure he is constantly up to date with the situation on the ground.

Email: di40@sussex.ac.uk

Dr Diana Ibañez-Tirado is a Social Anthropologist trained at SOAS, University of London. She works as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Sussex. Dr Ibañez-Tirado is also a Research Associate at the Centre of Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus, SOAS University of London. Since 2009, Dr Ibañez-Tirado has conducted field-research on Tajikistan in both Tajik and Russian languages. Her expertise lies in the field of everyday life, gender, migration, mobility and family-life in southern Tajikistan. Currently, she is investigating traders from Tajikistan and other Central Asian backgrounds based in China.

Email: J.D.Heathershaw@exeter.ac.ukl

Dr. John Heathershaw is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Exeter and Principal Investigator (2012-2015) of the ESRC Research Project ‘Rising Powers and Conflict Management in Central Asia’.  His research concerns the conflict, security and development in Central Asia, particularly Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. He has spent a total of three years living in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan). He speaks advanced Russian and intermediate Tajiki and Kyrgyz. Heathershaw has acted as a consultant to the donor agencies of the UK, US and German government as well as several international NGOs. He completed his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2007, specialising on Tajikistan. Heathershaw has held teaching and research posts at the University of Notre Dame, the American University in Central Asia, and King’s College, London.  His first book was entitled Post-Conflict Tajikistan: the politics of peacebuilding and the emergence of legitimate order (Routledge, 2009). He is a director of the Central Eurasian Studies Society and a member of the international advisory board of the academic journal Central Asian Survey. He has also had experience of work with UNHCR in Gambia.

Email: mmf@blueyonder.co.uk

Marjorie Farquharson has worked in the field of human rights and the USSR and post-Soviet states for 30 years. She has given her expert opinion on 43 cases involving asylum seekers to the UK. She has been a freelance researcher, writer and translator since 2001 and has worked in all five Central Asian States. She has done numerous research projects for UNDP, UNHCR and Amnesty International as well as independent research on Central Asian states. She was Amnesty International’s first representative in the Soviet bloc from 1994-1996 as the Director of the EU Tacis project. As a Council of Europe officer she has worked in 44 of Russia’s federal regions and helped establish a regional ombudsman institution there. She is the author of several publications on Central Asia. She is capable of giving her expertise on all Central Asian states, namely, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Marjorie is not able to provide her services pro bono, however, she is willing to negotiate a fee.

Email: mkhaidarova@icnlalliance.tj

Dr Muatar Khaidarova, a lawyer, is the Director of the ICNL/LLC Affiliate in Tajikistan and Chair of the Board of the NGO ‘Society and Law’.

Email: slavomir.horak@post.cz

Prof Slavomír Horák is an Associate Professor of Political and Cultural Geography at the Department of Russian and East European Studies, Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. His research covers political, social and economic issues in Central Asia. He is the author of several books on Central Asian and Afghan internal development as well as numerous articles published in Czech, Russian and English scholarly journals. He particularly focuses on Turkmenistan’s domestic issues, especially informal politics and state- and nation-building. Slavomir Horak is willing to provide his services for a negotiable fee. He is a native Czech speaker and has highly advanced knowledge in Russian and advanced knowledge in English. He has intermediate knowledge in Persia/Tajik, Georgian and Spanish and can comprehend reading in Turkmen, Azeri, French or Ukrainian.