Ms Dae Jana A. Johnson

Occupation:

Country Conditions Analyst on Jamaica - Legal Researcher and Paralegal

Summary

Jamaican legal professional and researcher with more than four years of experience in legal research, regulatory compliance, litigation support and report preparation, built inside Jamaican law firms and courts. Holds a Bachelor of Laws with Honours from the University of Technology Jamaica, covering constitutional law, public international law, criminal law, human rights, administrative law and labour law, and an Associate of Arts in Paralegal Studies with Honours from the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean. Her training and practice are rooted in Jamaica, which gives direct familiarity with Jamaican procedure, the court system, regulatory bodies and the institutional environment in which people try to secure protection. Instructed by legal practitioners to prepare country-context analysis for asylum and international protection proceedings focused on Jamaica.

Countries of Expertise

Jamaica as the core, with instructions across the English-speaking Caribbean: Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Bahamas and Guyana.

Details of Country Expertise

Country conditions knowledge of Jamaica grounded in direct practice inside the Jamaican legal system, academic training in constitutional law, criminal law, human rights, administrative law and labour law, and engagement with Jamaican regulatory bodies through litigation support and compliance work. Practice in Jamaican law firms gives practical familiarity with how the justice system works, how people navigate it, and where institutional protection is absent or inadequate.

The asylum-relevant issues covered include the criminalisation of same-sex intimacy under the Offences Against the Person Act, which remains in force and exposes LGBTQ+ people to criminal prosecution, police harassment and severe social and family persecution; gender-based violence and domestic abuse, where documented barriers to reporting and prosecution create real protection gaps; and gang violence and community insecurity in Kingston and other Jamaican cities, where people who refuse criminal recruitment, cooperate with the authorities or belong to targeted communities face risks the security forces are often unable or unwilling to address.

A separate area is the position of people deported to Jamaica from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, who can face heightened risk on return through social stigma, criminal targeting and the absence of community support. The analysis draws on Jamaican legislation and court procedure, and on reporting by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, J-FLAG and independent Jamaican media, for claims based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender-based violence and membership of a particular social group.

Experience

Country conditions research and legal analyst, Jamaica, The Human Rights Experts.

Freelance paralegal and independent legal researcher. Cross-border legal research for international law firms on complex matters including kidnapping cases, review of legal documents and reports, legislative breakdowns and preparation of litigation documents.

Litigation paralegal, Kingston Law Firm, Attorneys-at-Law. Regulatory and compliance work including client onboarding and compliance records under anti-money-laundering legislation, research on issues arising in cases locally and internationally, liaison with clients, regulators and government bodies, and compliance with court orders for trial.

Assistant law clerk, Montego Bay Law Firm, Attorneys-at-Law. Commercial and property contracts including agreements for sale, transfers of title and mortgage documents, compliance for offshore companies, and liaison with the Tax Administration and land agencies.

Education

Bachelor of Laws with Honours, University of Technology Jamaica, Faculty of Law. Associate of Arts in Paralegal Studies with Honours, University of the Commonwealth Caribbean, awarded an internship with the Government Trustee of Jamaica for performance in insolvency law. Cybersecurity Essentials certificate, 2026. Anti-money-laundering compliance training, 2024.

Languages

English (native).