Sara Alaoui Lamdghri

Country Expert on North Africa — Human-Rights and Country-Conditions Researcher

Summary

Human-rights and country-conditions researcher covering North Africa, specialising in criminal sciences, human rights and refugee protection, with a Master's in Criminal Sciences and Human Rights and a law degree in private law. Trained by and worked with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in North Africa, assisting asylum seekers to formulate and lodge their claims during the registration process, and completed a human-rights monitoring placement with a national human-rights institution in places of deprivation of liberty. Combines refugee-law and human-rights knowledge with country-of-origin analysis of Morocco and the wider Maghreb — working accurately and independently from primary sources in French, Arabic and English — producing rigorously sourced country-of-origin research for asylum and protection work.

Countries of Expertise

North Africa — Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria in particular, with broader coverage of the wider Maghreb and North Africa generally.

Details of Country Expertise

Country-conditions coverage across North Africa, using country-of-origin research, document analysis, source evaluation and fact-checking to research the issues these countries raise in protection claims. Areas covered across asylum-relevant themes:

• Detention and persons deprived of liberty. The treatment of persons deprived of liberty and conditions in detention — grounded in first-hand human-rights monitoring in places of detention — relevant to protection claims concerning ill-treatment and prison conditions.
• Asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. The asylum and refugee framework and the registration and treatment of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants, including sub-Saharan migrants transiting the region — drawn from direct experience of asylum-seeker registration and of refugee-status determination in practice.
• Women and survivors of gender-based violence. The position of women and of survivors of gender-based violence, and the practical availability of state protection — relevant to claims based on gender and membership of a particular social group.
• Political dissent, journalists and civic space. Across Tunisia and the wider Maghreb, the treatment of political dissidents, journalists and civil-society activists amid restrictions on political and media freedom; the position of LGBT individuals; and the treatment of migrants, refugees and returnees — assessed against the practical availability of state protection and internal relocation.

Experience

A human-rights and country-conditions researcher with practical experience across refugee protection, human-rights monitoring and legal research in North Africa. Following training on the agency's mandate, worked with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) as an asylum-seeker registration assistant, helping asylum seekers formulate and lodge their applications during the registration process and supporting vulnerable applicants through a rights-based, confidential procedure, with direct exposure to refugee-status determination in practice.

Beyond her human-rights background, Ms. Alaoui Lamdghri brings hands-on field experience working with civil society organizations across Morocco on gender equity, women's empowerment and youth development. This gives her direct, ground-level insight into the realities facing women, youth and marginalized communities in Morocco.

Languages

• Arabic — Native
• French — Full professional proficiency
• English — Professional proficiency

Political Groups

Political dissidents, opposition figures, journalists and civil-society activists at risk on the basis of political opinion, expression or activism.

Social and Vulnerable Groups

Persons deprived of liberty and detainees; asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and returnees; women and survivors of gender-based violence; and LGBT individuals at risk across North Africa.

Ethnic and Religious Minorities

Sub-Saharan migrants and other groups exposed to discrimination or ill-treatment in the course of transit and residence across North Africa.

Selected Publications

"Criminal Law and Human Rights during the Covid-19 State of Health Emergency" — research dissertation (Master's, 2020–2021): a study of emergency legislation and decree-laws, their enforcement and their human-rights implications, with comparative reference to other jurisdictions.