Andinet Adinew Tesfaye

Occupation:

Country Expert on East Africa and the Horn of Africa — Legal Researcher and Human Rights Specialist

Summary

Legal researcher and human rights specialist with more than a decade of professional experience across East Africa and the Horn of Africa. Combines legal research, university teaching, legislative and policy work, and country conditions analysis for asylum and international protection cases. Acting Director at the Government Whips' Affairs Directorate of the FDRE House of Peoples' Representatives since 2022, previously Lecturer and Academic Programme Coordinator at Haramaya University College of Law and consultant to the USAID/OTI Ethiopia programme. Holds an LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law and an LL.B. from Haramaya University. Instructed by legal practitioners in the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union since 2025, and provides oral evidence before courts and tribunals where required.

Countries of Expertise

Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan as the core, with coverage of South Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.

Details of Country Expertise

Country conditions analysis for the Horn of Africa grounded in domestic legal frameworks, documented cases, peer-reviewed research and verified reporting. The work addresses persecution and protection failures arising from political opinion and political association, military and police service, prison and detention conditions, religion and religious minority status, race and ethnicity, nationality, and sexual orientation and gender identity.

Ethiopia. Human rights conditions after the political reform period, and how shifts in governance have intersected with security practice and protection failures. Patterns of political persecution linked to political association, the position of returnees, and the practical limits of state protection outside the capital.

Eritrea and the wider Horn. Conditions connected to military and national service, treatment of those who left the country irregularly, and the position of religious minorities.

Sudan and South Sudan. Conflict-related risk, displacement, and the treatment of people returned to areas outside effective state control.

Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Djibouti. Regional coverage, including the position of refugees and asylum seekers inside the region and the treatment of political opponents in exile.

Experience

Expert witness and country context analysis, East Africa and the Horn of Africa, 2025 to present. Written expert reports and country-context analyses for asylum and human rights proceedings in the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, with oral evidence where required.

Acting Director, Government Whips' Affairs Directorate, FDRE House of Peoples' Representatives, 2022 to present.

Lecturer and Academic Programme Coordinator, Haramaya University College of Law, 2017 to 2022. Chairman of the Law Programme Curriculum Committee, 2021 to 2022.

Consultant, USAID/OTI Ethiopia programme, 2021 to 2023. Licensed social affairs consultant since 2020.

Editorial Board, Haramaya Law Review, since 2021. Editor, The Age of Human Rights Journal, 2021.

Constitutional Review Team member, FDRE Attorney General, 2021.

Education

LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law, Haramaya University, 2021. LL.B. in Law, Haramaya University, 2017.

Languages

Amharic and Wolaytta (native), English (fluent), Afaan Oromo (basic).