The Network

edeandres@iom.int

IOM FOCAL POINT 

Edlira de Andrés is serving at the IOM Regional Office for West and Central Africa, and she is responsible for the coordination and strengthening of the IOM’s policy and programmatic coherence in the Sahel, in line with the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (UNISS), as well other regional strategic frameworks. Previously, Eda was based at the IOM Regional Office for East Africa and the Horn in Nairobi, serving as the Special Advisor to the Regional Director. In this capacity, she provided specialized technical support to the Regional Director, facilitating his engagements with various stakeholders including UN agencies, regional integration mechanisms, governmental bodies, donors, and private sector partners. Eda has drafted cooperation agreements, memoranda of understanding, and other pertinent legally binding documents with partner institutions. With regards to protection of migrants and victims of trafficking, in Nairobi, Eda also led the roll out of the regional multi stakeholder training on “Caring for Trafficked Persons” in Djibouti, Somalia mainly in Mogadishu, Somaliland and Bossaso & Kenya, and provided technical guidance in mainstreaming IOM’s available resources on migrant assistance ongoing protection initiatives. 

In Panama, Eda collaborated with the Panamanian National Bar to provide legal assistance services to both Panamanian nationals and migrants, covering areas such as civil law, labor law, and criminal law at the San Miguelito Branch of the Free Legal Advice Unit. Additionally, in her role as President of the Board of the French School in Panama, Eda oversaw various legal matters, including reviewing civil contracts, ensuring compliance with immigration and contractual regulations for all staff, providing legal counsel on labor law issues, and leading the approval process for the reform of the school's legal statutes. She also led the restructuring and reorganization of the school's administration and management, contributing to the preparation of legal documentation related to procedures, human resources, and financial matters. 

Furthermore, Eda volunteered as a Pro Bono Advisor on legal issues related to Trafficking in Persons (TiP) and Smuggling of Migrants (SoM), with a particular focus on the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons especially Women and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, and Air investigation techniques on smuggling of migrants. Furthermore, she assisted in the preparation of the investigative techniques on smuggling of migrants as established in the Basic Training Manual on Investigating and Prosecuting the Smuggling of Migrants. 

Eda holds an MBA in Management and Administration of Private Enterprises from Spain, and an LL.B. in Law and a B.A. in Political Sciences. She speaks English, French, Spanish and Albanian. 

davidlelul@gmail.com

+243808332222

David Lelu L B, Lawyer at the Bar of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2003; lecturer in International Public Law at the Pedagogical University of Katanga in 2014, promoter of the World Changers Christian College in Kinshasa. Passionate about research and the education sector. David Lelu believes like many that quality education is the powerful weapon to overcome poverty and change the world.

He has expertise in migration issues such as border management, migration data management, migration policies and strategies in Central and West Africa, and the development and review of migration legislation. David Lelu has particular expertise in migration and diaspora issues.

He is the author of several studies and reports on migration in Central and West Africa, including Preliminary draft law on Entry and Stay of Foreigners in the Democratic Republic of Congo jointly with the late Gaetano Italian lawyer and legal expert in migration - IOM, 2008, Tools for strengthening collaboration in the enforcement of laws against human trafficking in ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania, IOT, 2016; Overview of the Legal and Policy Framework for Public-Private Partnership in the Health Sector in the Economic Community of Central African States, World Bank, 2014; Migration data and Management in ECOWAS Countries and Mauritania: Assessment and Recommendations, IOM, EU, ICMPD, Abuja 2014; Mapping of Irregular Migration Risk and Departure Areas in Senegal, IOM, Dakar, 2017; Preliminary Draft Migration Policy of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Intra-ACP Facility, Brussels 2013.

David Lelu, legal expert in the field of migration has participated and conducted several missions with different organizations and donors including and mainly the International Organization for Migration, World Bank, African Development Bank; UNHCR, ICMPD, ILO, etc.

With nearly 18 years of expertise as a lawyer, project manager in the migration sector, trainer of trainers in migration and development, researcher in migration management, David Lelu loves to learn and share his knowledge with passion.

Ibrahima Kane is a Special adviser to the Executive Director of the Open Society Foundation-Africa in charge of the Africa Union Advocacy and a qualified lawyer in Senegal and France. Prior to joining the Open Society Foundation in 2007, he was a senior lawyer in charge of the Africa program at INTERIGHTS for 10 years.

As a founding member of RADDHO, a Senegalese human rights organization, Kane directed a program that focused on public education and women’s human rights in five West African countries—Cape Verde, the Republic of Guinea, the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, and Senegal—for six years.

Ibrahima has particular interest in economic, social, and cultural rights; women’s rights; rights of migrants and refugees; nationality issues on the African continent and the pursuit of justice through regional and international mechanisms. Kane has collaborated closely with and litigated before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Union Commission, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Court of Justice of the East African Community (EAC) for the last fifteen years. He is an author and coordinated the drafting and publication of a number of reports and articles on the Africa Union, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the protection of human rights by regional economic community bodies. He has also been an associate lecturer at the law faculty of the University of Essex from 2005 to 2011).

Professor Achilles Skordas has taught international law and migration law at the Universities of Athens, Bristol, Copenhagen and Frankfurt-am-Main. He is now Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and his current research focuses on international law and geopolitics. He has widely published in the area of international law and migration law and co-edited the following books: Koutrakos/Skordas (eds), The Law and Practice of Piracy at Sea – European and International Perspectives, Bloomsbury, 2014; Skordas/Halmai/Mardikian (eds), Economic Constitutionalism in a Turbulent World, Elgar Publ., forthcoming 2023; Skordas/Mardikian (eds), Research Handbook on the International Court of Justice, Elgar Publ., forthcoming 2023. He has also commented Articles 5 and 7 of the Refugee Convention in the Zimmermann Commentary on the 1951 Convention, Oxford University Press, 2011 (2nd edition forthcoming) and he has commented the Temporary Protection Directive in Thym/Hailbronner (eds), EU Immigration and Asylum Law – Article-by-Article Commentary, Beck/Hart/Nomos, 3rd edition, 2022. Achilles is a Member of the Academic Network Odysseus on Migration and Asylum Law in Europe and served as an advisor with the Greek Parliament on international legal affairs, including on migration.

https://www.mpil.de/de/pub/institut/personen/wissenschaftlicher-bereich/askordas.cfm

https://www.mpil.de/en/pub/research/areas/public-international-law/geopolitics-and-international.cfm

President of both the Steering Committee and the Network.

Prof Abdou Khadre DIOP holds a PhD in Public Law from Laval University in Canada and the University of Bordeaux in France (specializing in public international law) and is an associate professor of law (CAMES). He is a lecturer and researcher at the Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University (Senegal) and head of the Legal and Political Science Pedagogical Unit of the said university.

Prof. Diop is the President of the Network of Expert Lawyers on Migration in West and Central Africa and as such is also the President of the Steering Committee of the said network bringing together members of civil society, academia, and IOM.

Prof. Diop is also a founding member, with other colleagues from Senegal and Canada, of OMIRAS (Observatory on Migration, Statelessness and Asylum) and President of the Senegalese Association of Constitutional Law (ASDC).

Sophie Nonnenmacher joined IOM in 2000. After working at Headquarters to develop IOM's portfolio on labour migration and development, Sophie was appointed in 2009 to the Regional Office in Bangkok as thematic specialist on migrant assistance and protection where she was responsible for providing technical advice at the policy and programmatic level among others on migrants in vulnerable situations, trafficking and smuggling in the Asia-Pacific region.

Successively Ms. Nonnenmacher was appointed first as the regional migration policy officer, and later on as the administrator of the newly established entity “Regional support office of the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons, and related Transnational Crime”.

Ms. Nonnenmacher served as IOM Thailand's acting Chief of Mission until 2017, where she joining the IOM Regional Office for West and Central Africa as the Senior Regional Policy Officer and Deputy Regional Director.

Ms. Sophie Nonnenmacher holds a Diploma of Specialized Studies (DESS) in Political Sciences from the University of Paris- Sorbonne, a Master’s degree in Social Sciences and a Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) in Social and Political Anthropology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, as well as a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Paris Nanterre.

Vice-chair of the group of legal experts

Clara is a lawyer with a multidisciplinary background. She is Lecturer in the Legal and Policy Aspects of Migration at the University of Ghana Centre for Migration Studies, and as well Lecturer in the University of Ghana School of Law. Clara is also a consultant with considerable experience in legal and regulatory frameworks, institutional assessment and policy analysis. She is Vice Chair of the Network of Legal Experts on migration in West and Central Africa, Vice Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Centre for Democratic Development, (CDD Ghana), Head of Chambers at Kasser Law Firm, and Member of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee where she is the Chairperson of the Legal Sub-Committee.

Clara graduated at the top of her class and is a recipient of the prestigious John Mensah Sarbah Prize given to the best overall (all round) graduating lawyer, and the best student in the law of taxation in 2009. She was chosen by the Campaign for Female Education (Camfed), an international non- governmental organization as its role model for its Career and Entrepreneurship Fair organized for young women in March 2010.

Dieudonné Kossi is a member of the West and Central African Network of legal experts on migration. He is a founding member and Executive Director of the Legal and Social Expertise Clinic (CEJUS). He is also Secretary General of the Network of Francophone Legal Clinics and a doctoral student in public law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lomé. Since 2019, he is the General Manager of the Harmattan Forum, an annual international conference dedicated to migration issues and challenges.

Abdoulaye Hamadou holds a PhD in legal and administrative sciences from the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences of the Mohamed Premier University of Oujda in Morocco. He is currently a lecturer and researcher at the Djibo Hamani University of Tahoua in Niger. At the administrative level and within his University, Dr. Hamadou is in charge of the Quality Assurance and LMD system. In the field of research, he is attached to the LARADES (Laboratory of Analysis and Research on Economic and Social Development) of the University Djibo Hamani. His research focuses on public finance, administrative law and litigation, local government law, human rights, migration and statelessness. Finally, in the field of associations, Dr. Hamadou is the coordinator and founder of the University Association for the Promotion of Human Rights and the Environment (AUDHE).

Dionko Maoundé holds a doctorate in private law from the University of Lyon 3 in France. He is a teacher-researcher at the University of N'Djaména where he was Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science from 2011 to 2015. He is currently the Director General of Higher Education, Research and Innovation at the Ministry in charge of Higher Education in Chad.

A consultant to several UN agencies on policies and strategies for the protection of human rights, Dionko Maoundé was one of the consultants recruited in 2022 by the IOM for the development of a National Orientation Manual (NOM) for vulnerable migrants in Chad.

ANGUE Christian Gérard Isidore holds a PhD in Public Law from the University of Yaoundé II and a PhD in Governance and Integration from the Pan African University. He is a teacher-researcher at the University of Dschang in Cameroon where he teaches constitutional law, administrative law and public finance. He is the author of numerous scientific publications and is interested in issues related to the rule of law, African constitutionalism, secularism, decentralization, the environment, human mobility and public finance. He is also a researcher at the Research Unit on International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights and Public Liberties (URDIHDHLP), and at the Center for Constitutional, Administrative and Financial Studies and Research (CERCAF).

Holder of a doctorate in Private Law, NONNOU Gildas is above all a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration et de Magistrature (ENAM) with a professional degree in Labor and Social Security Administration. He has also followed several training courses on International Labor Law, notably at the International Training Center of Turin where he took part in 2016 in an international seminar on International Labor Standards.

He teaches Private Law at the ENAM of the University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC), and has taught labor law and labor litigation as an Assistant at the ENAM from 2011 to 2013 as well as in some private universities until now.

He has expertise in labor migration issues, particularly with regard to general theory, legal and institutional arrangements, protection mechanisms and international cooperation.

As an expert on migration issues, he has provided training to administrators and inspectors from the entire Francophone West African region on the governance of labor migration, a JLMP initiative supported by GIZ and the African Union Commission.

He has been a member of the Network of Legal Experts on migration in West and Central Africa and the Center since 2022 with IOM.

Holder of a Doctorate in Public Law, Dr. Djiga is involved in teaching, research, supervision and legal advice in the fields of International Public Law, Administrative Law, Environmental Law and International Migration Law. For nearly twelve (12) years, he has taught these different subjects in public and private universities and at the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM) in Burkina Faso. He has also worked as a consultant for the Government of Burkina Faso, for intergovernmental organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and for national and international non-governmental organizations such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on studies related to environmental governance, climate governance and migration. He has also served as Legal Advisor to the Minister of Energy, Mines and Quarries.

Dr. Djiga is also the author of various publications related to Public International Law, Climate Migration and Environmental Law.

He is currently a teacher-researcher at the UFR/Sciences Juridiques et Politiques of the Thomas SANKARA University (Burkina Faso).

marcdembele@gmail.com

Marc DEMBELE holds a degree in public law with a major in international relations. He is also specialized in migration issues, engineering of cooperation projects, local development and decentralization.

Marc has effectively contributed to the formulation and operationalization of policies and strategies in the field of migration. He has also actively participated in the success of several initiatives that contribute to the better knowledge, valorization, and management of migration in Mali. In this regard, he developed the national strategy for the promotion of productive investments of the Malian diaspora, and he conducted various studies including the analysis of the ecosystem of migration statistics in Mali and the formulation of relevant guidelines on the development of national policies focused on the availability and better governance of migration data.

Mr. Dembélé has a good understanding of Mali's legal and institutional environment and its political and social context, which allows him to interact effectively with all national actors and international organizations working on migration issues. He has thus effectively contributed to the implementation of other actions of Mali's National Migration Policy (PONAM), through studies and research, in addition to capacity building of national actors.

By joining the network of legal experts on migration, Marc puts at the disposal of this network his capacities to contribute to research and analysis on policy and legislative developments at the national level, as well as to comparative analysis between the States represented.

Prof. Cheluchi Onyemelukwe is a lawyer and an international consultant with expertise in migration law and policy and international human rights law. She is Professor of Law at Babcock University, Nigeria, and founder of the non-profit, Centre for Health Ethics Law and Development (CHELD).

A leading migration and human rights expert, she has been involved in the development of national policies on migration in Nigeria such as the Action Plan for Nigeria’s Migration Policy, National Diaspora Policy, etc. She has supported the development of human rights and survivor-centred approaches across various work in the migration space, including in irregular migration and forced migration. She has worked to build the capacities of actors in migration including prosecutors, law enforcement, judges and other criminal justice sector operators as well as border management officials. She has also led the identification of current human rights gaps in migration management, and victims-centred approaches training for civil society organisations providing support to victims of trafficking (VOTs), addressed the intersections of migration, health, climate change, gender-based violence and impacts on migrants’ rights, and facilitated high level workshops on migration, amongst other work. She regularly works on migration governance and international human rights matters for international organisations, including the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), GIZ, etc.

She leads CHELD’s activities as a think-tank working at the intersections of migration, human rights, gender and health. Most recently, CHELD has supported the African Union Commission on building capacities of Member States on improving universal health coverage of migrants and supporting understanding of the intersections between migration and health. It is currently working with IOM to support service providers in the delivery of human rights based and survivor-centred support to victims of trafficking in Nigeria. It also provides support for internally displaced persons in Nigeria.

She holds a doctorate degree in law from Dalhousie University, Canada. She has a First Class degree in law from the University of Nigeria. She is the recipient of several awards, scholarships and fellowships.

Doctor of State in private judicial law, university professor, director of research at the Alasriya University of Nouakchott, former Minister of Justice, expert at the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture (SPT), member of the national commission on the status of refugees, Haimoud Ramdan was general rapporteur of the National Commission on Human Rights during two successive mandates.

He has a long experience in drafting texts and was a member of the steering committee of Human Rights in Mauritania and of the International Institute of Law of French inspiration and expression.

Author of books and articles on terrorism, slavery, justice in Mauritania, land tenure, children's rights, migrant workers, trafficking in human beings, the rights of foreigners and the protection of refugees, juvenile justice he was the focal point for UNICEF and Terre des Hommes for juvenile justice, UNHCR for refugees, IOM for migrants, OHCHR for human rights, the World Bank for trade justice and the ICRC for international humanitarian law.

Vera Patrícia Querido is the managing partner of VPQ Advogados, the Cape Verdean member of Morais Leitão Legal Circle.

She practiced law from 1996 to 2002, focusing on the areas of Criminal Law, Civil Law, Labour Law and Administrative Law.

Vera was a Senior Technician at the General Labour Inspection, namely as instructor of misdemeanours procedures, as well as at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, intervening in the transposition of Community Directives in the area of Safety and Health at Work and in the drafting of other legislation related to the same matter.

She was a Labour Inspector at the Authority for Working Conditions. As a Labour Inspector, she dealt with issues related to the legalization and social labor conditions of immigrants.

Vera Patrícia Querido was Deputy Ombudsman of the Republic of Cape Verde until September 2020. During her mandate she dealt with issues related to the entry and stay of foreign citizens in Cape Verde, collaborated with the Directorate of Foreigners and Borders, General Directorate of Immigration and maintained communication with the IOM office in Praia.

Reuben J.B. Lewis holds multiple positions as a consultant with international, state and non-state institutions. He is a National Consultant for IOM in the development and practice of Migration governance tools, policies and research on Sierra Leone including the drafting and finalization of the National Migration Policy for Sierra Leone, conduct of irregular migration research to inform policy and practice, and on border management assessment for Sierra Leone within the Mano River Basin. Currently he is developing an Integrated border management strategy and action plan for Sierra Leone in partnership with IOM, Office of National Security (ONS) and the Sierra Leone Immigration Department (SLID). In addition, he is the Country Lead Expert for the Demand Driven Facility Programme for Sierra Leone with the International Centre For Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) as well as a consultant on policy and practice with the Centre for Human Traffick Research and Outreach (CenHTRO) Africa Programming Initiative to End Slavery (APRIES) based at the University of Georgia, U.S.A.