Our Team

Sarah Nankivell

Sarah Nankivell is the Research Manager of Forensic Architecture (FA), a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London. Sarah is a graduate of the University of Toronto (BSc) and the University of Cambridge (MPhil), where her research focused on the destruction of heritage sites in conflict. Sarah joined the FA team in 2017, having previously worked at B+H Architects, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Aga Khan Museum.

Ruth Khakame

Ruth Khakame is an experienced lead organiser of workers including migrant workers. The Chairperson of the National Domestic Workers Council, KUDHEIHA - KENYA, she has vast experience in matters of labour, Employment laws, and migration . She has soft spot for the vulnerable groups in society. She is an executive board member in a number of rights-based organisations. And the youth president for the ITUC Africa. She's involved in grassroots mobilisation , campaigns and advocacy, networking and collaborations, policy reviews, education and training, resource mobilisation towards achieving balance and equality for vulnerable groups.

Paul Watson

Chair

Paul has almost 30 years of compliance, advisory and leadership roles within investment banking and financial markets. Paul is currently Head of Compliance for the Natixis London Branch. Prior to that he worked for HSBC’s investment bank, Cazenove, and Credit Lyonnais. As a managing director at HSBC, he led globally their Global Banking & Markets Compliance team and transformed their surveillance function into industry leaders. Paul is also a special advisor to Eiger Regulatory Partners. He has an LLB in Business Law and a Masters in European Law; both from Strathclyde University.

Nazma Akter

The Founder and Executive Director of Awaj Foundation, Nazma Akter, has fought extensively for over 32 years to enhance working conditions and rights, especially for women employees. Whilst undertaking her role at the Awaj Foundation, Nazma also is the President of the Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation and also the Co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Women's Committee of IndustriALL Global Union. Nazma has been recognised for her selfless work by being awarded the Bangladesh Mohila Parishad Aware and ASTRAIA Female Leader of the Year 2013 while also being nominated for the Inspired Leadership Award in 2018.

John James Bullstrode

John-James works with Amnesty International's European, Central Asian, and Mediterranean teams on regional and national fundraising from trusts, foundations and institutional donors. He was recently instrumental in launching Amnesty’s appeals for work on Afghanistan in August 2021 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He previously worked at Oxfam GB advising on funding from the European Commission and on humanitarian deployments. He has also worked with International Service and UNIFEM/UN Women in funding, project management and administration. Before that, he spent time in customer service and teaching abroad. He is treasurer for a community sponsorship group, The Welcome Committee, helping refugee families to settle in London. He is a strong communicator with a passion for social justice and purposeful transnational collaborations, with technical skills in proposal development and grant management. His interests include intersectional equality and addressing social exclusion. He has a first-class degree in French from UCL and an MA in Gender and Development from the University of Warwick. He was born in East London and grew up near Oxford.

Joanne Mariner

Joanne Mariner is the director of crisis response at Amnesty International. She has investigated human rights violations around the world, documenting war crimes in Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Ukraine, ethnic cleansing in the Central African Republic, and political violence in Burundi and Haiti, among others. She has published widely on human rights topics, conducted advocacy before UN and regional bodies, and appeared on national and international media. In 2005, she received the American Society of International Law's Distinguished Woman in International Law award. A graduate of Yale Law School, she is a member of the New York bar.

Clive Baldwin

Clive Baldwin is Senior Legal Advisor for the legal and policy office at Human Rights Watch, where he has been working on issues of international law since 2007. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Clive was a practicing lawyer in London for the human rights law firm, Bindman and Partners, and worked on European human rights litigation at the AIRE Centre. He subsequently worked for the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, and later served as Head of Advocacy for Minority Rights Group International. While at Minority Rights Group, Clive implemented the organization’s first global litigation program. The cases he litigated included the Endorois Community v Kenya, the first Indigenous land rights case at the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights. In Finci v Bosnia-Hercegovina, he helped successfully challenge the Bosnian constitution’s exclusion of Jews from the presidency and upper house of parliament in the first such ruling of the European Court of Human Rights. Clive helped Human Rights Watch initiate a case with two other organizations against Libya in 2011 that resulted in the first ruling against a state by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Clive received a bachelors degree in international history and politics from the University of Leeds, a masters in international relations from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and studied law at City University, London. He speaks French.

Geoffrey Owino

Investigator

Geoffrey Owino is a Kenyan having worked as a migrant worker in the Gulf. He is our Kenyan investigator with expertise in migrant worker research and investigations in the East and Central Africa regions. He is passionate about organising workers, creating awareness of human/labour rights, and overall advocacy on diverse human rights policies and issues. Before joining Equidem Geoffrey had worked in the private security sector, Kenyan unions and worked on advocacy and national campaigns on labour rights in Kenya. Geoffrey has a wealth of experience in occupational health and safety inspections, in both Kenya and the Gulf countries, across multiple sectors.

Vipitha Vijayan

Assistant Researcher

Vipitha Vijayan is an Assistant Researcher working on research design and data analysis. Vipitha helps Equidem answer complex labour rights questions through rigorous research and analysis. She has an MPhil from the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and is currently completing a PhD. Vipitha has worked closely with various marginalised communities advocating for land rights and labour rights. Her work revolves around caste, social exclusion, spatiality, subalternity, gender and labour issues.

Rameshwar Nepal

South Asia Director, Nepal Director

Rameshwar has worked on human rights for over two decades, becoming Amnesty International’s longest serving director in Nepal before leaving to join Equidem in 2017. He now manages our work in Nepal, including four field investigators, and coordinates our work across South Asia.

Nikhil Eapen

Special Projects Researcher

Nikhil has broad experience spanning human rights research and advocacy, campaigning and mobilisation, investigative reporting and fundraising. Nikhil is the author of the landmark Amnesty International report Exploited dreams: Dispatches from Indian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. He has a background in labour rights and a proven track record of building and leading large teams that deliver on strategic outcomes.

Nani Baral

Projects Assistant

Nani is an experienced office manager and is responsible for a range of administrative and project management functions for Equidem and Equidem Nepal. She brings a range of expertise to Equidem from working in the media and financial services industries in Nepal for over a decade. She has experience in investigative reporting, documentation of human rights and social issues, working with communities and rights holders, and conducting motivational trainings.

Namrata Raju

Acting Program Manager

Namrata is responsible for the successful leadership, management and oversight of Equidem’s work. She is a labour researcher with over a decade of experience working in South Asia and the Arab Gulf. Namrata has provided research inputs to an array of public and private sector actors across India and the Gulf. First as a fellow from Harvard's Women and Public Policy programme, and later as an advisor to their Labour Migration unit, Namrata also worked closely with the ILO-Sri Lanka country office in Colombo.

Mini Mohan

Investigator

Before joining Equidem, Mini spent 25 years working with civil society organisations and trade unions in India and the wider region. As a long-term advocate for workers’ and migrants’ rights in industries such as fishing, construction and farming, Mini works closely with people from marginalised communities, including low-wage workers, women, children, disabled and transgender people.

Eiffel Abedin

Bangladesh Researcher

EiffeI has extensive experience as a social researcher and journalist including previously as the Diplomatic Correspondent for Bangladesh News and Dhaka Tribune, and reporting for Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua, China Central Television and Al Jazeera Arabic. He covered the Rohingya refugee crisis for US-based magazine Politico and has worked as a Special Correspondent for The Los Angeles Times.

Dennis Dome

Kenya Researcher

Dennis is responsible for designing, implementing and supervising research projects in East and the Horn of Africa and labour migration corridors to the Gulf countries. His experience includes data mining on engendering inclusivity for UNWOMEN and conducting violent extremism research for USAID. He has also been involved in a range of projects for clients including Core Group Polio Project, Kenya’s Ministry of Education, Save The Children and CARE International.

Deepika Thapaliya

Projects Manager

Deepika is a qualified lawyer in Nepal with experience working as a Legal Assistant for a respected law firm and undertaking human rights research for Amnesty International Nepal. She is also a founding member of a local Senior Citizen Service Community, a non-profit organisation that protects and promotes senior citizens’ rights. Deepika speaks English, Hindi and Nepali.

Mustafa Qadri

CEO

Mustafa Qadri is the Founder and CEO of Equidem, providing overall strategic direction and managing all our projects. He is a human rights research and advocacy expert with 20 years of interdisciplinary experience in government and public international law, journalism and the non-governmental sector.