Members

The Working Group is composed of five independent experts, of balanced geographical representation, who are elected by the Human Rights Council for a period of three years, which can be renewed once for an additional three years.

Current members

Ms. Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito (Serbia), appointed in 2023 - Chairperson-Rapporteur

Dr. Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito (Serbia) is lecturer and researcher at the University College Twente in the Netherlands. She holds extensive experience as both a teacher and researcher in the domains of International Relations, private military and security company (PMSC) regulation (with an emphasis on accountability and human rights), and emerging trends in the privatization of armed conflict. She authored numerous works in these fields. She holds a Ph.D., MA, and BA in International Relations and Conflict Resolution, from the University of Coimbra, in Portugal. As a researcher, she collaborated with a variety of stakeholders to analyze the regulatory process of PMSCs. Additionally, she founded PrivSecNet, a network that brings together academics and practitioners who are interested in the PMSC phenomenon.

Mr. Ravindran Daniel (India), appointed in 2020

Mr. Ravindran Daniel is an expert in international human rights law with more than 30 years of experience working on human rights at local, regional and international levels. He specializes in conflict and post-conflict situations. He has served as the Director of the Human Rights Divisions of UN Peace Operations in East Timor, Libya and Sudan. He has held senior positions in the Cambodia and Uganda offices of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In the 80s, he worked with the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva. He also served as the Secretary of the UN International Enquiry Commission on East Timor. He founded the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development and was a member of the launching committee that established the International Network for Economic Social and Cultural Rights. He has conducted numerous academic training and workshops for human rights activists in various parts of the world.

Ms. Michelle Small (South Africa), appointed in 2024

Dr Michelle Small is a Lecturer in International Relations (IR) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She holds qualifications in International Relations (IR), teaching and learning (T&L) in higher education (HE), and research ethics from the University of the Witwatersrand, University of Warwick, and Global Ethics, an INGO. Her research broadly examines the (in)security dynamics on the African continent with published works on election violence, forced migration, and her core area of focus, mercenarism and private military and security companies (PMSCs) in Africa. She is currently involved in research projects on the ICC in Africa, mapping mercenarism and foreign military and security presence in Africa, and decolonising research methods and curricula in IR, specifically in the area of peace and conflict. Dr Small previously served as the Deputy Chair and protocol reviewer for the University of the Witwatersrand’s Human Research Ethics Committee, Non-Medical (HREC-NM), a position she held for 10 years.

Ms. Joana de Deus Pereira (Portugal), appointed in 2024

Dr. Joana de Deus Pereira (Portugal) is a Senior Research Fellow at RUSI Europe, specialising in Counter-Terrorism and Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE). She is a co-founder of the Private Military and Security Companies (PMSC) Research Group at King's College London. Dr. Pereira holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from King’s College London, focusing on the privatisation of security in Angola.

Dr. Pereira is the Team Leader of the EU Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) Training Programme and Team Coordinator of FU2 Research Unit within the Radicalisation Awareness Network Policy Support (RANPS) Team at RUSI Europe. She has been involved in numerous EU-funded projects focusing on geopolitical risk and security analysis, with particular expertise in geopolitical and country-risk analysis in sub-Saharan Africa.

As of 1st August 2024, Dr. Pereira has been appointed as the UN Mandate Holder of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries.

Since October 2019, she has been a lecturer and instructor at the NATO Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism (COE-DAT), covering counterterrorism, border security, border technology, and human trafficking. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Professor at Sciences Po, Paris, and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the International Centre for Policing and Security at the University of South Wales, where she co-managed the first Jean Monnet Network on EU Counter-Terrorism between October 2020-February 2024.

Dr. Pereira was appointed as member of the Scientific Board of the NOVA School of Law War & Law LAB in Lisbon, Portugal. She also serves as a Key Expert at the Online UNICRI Expert Group on Private Military Companies.

Dr. Pereira was a Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow from 2018 to 2020, focusing on the EU's externalisation of migration and the use of private contractors. She is fluent in English, Spanish, and French, and her mother tongue is Portuguese.

Mr. Andres Macias Tolosa (Colombia), appointed in 2024

Dr. Andres Macias Tolosa (Colombia) is a lecturer and researcher at Universidad Externado de Colombia in Colombia. He holds a Ph.D. in Peace and Conflict Studies from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Japan. His doctoral research focused on the privatisation of security in Colombia. His main research areas include privatisation of security; public policy analysis in security and defense; peacebuilding; armed conflicts; and studies on drugs and crime. Dr. Macias Tolosa is also the Coordinator of the OPERA Research Group at Universidad Externado de Colombia, as well as, the Editor of the OPERA Journal from the same university. He is a Spanish native speaker, and speaks English fluently.

Previous members

• Mr. Carlos Salazar Couto (Peru)
  2022 – 2024
• Ms. Sorcha MacLeod (United Kingdom)
  2018 – 2024
• Mr. Chris Kwaja (Nigeria) 
  2018-2024
• Ms. Jelena Aparac (Croatia)
  2018-2023
• Ms. Lilian Bobea (Dominican Republic)
  2018-2021
• Mr. Saeed Mokbil (Yemen)
  2014-2020
• Mr. Gabor Rona (United States of America)
  2011-2018
• Ms. Patricia Arias (Chile)
  2011-2018
• Mr. Anton Katz (South Africa)
  2011-2018
• Ms. Elzbieta Karska (Poland)
  2011-2018
• Ms. Faiza Patel (Pakistan)
  2011-2014
• Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)
  2005 - 2011
• Ms. Amada Benavides de Pérez (Colombia)
  2005 - 2011
• Mr. José Luis Gómez del Prado (Spain)
  2005-2011
• Mr. Alexander Nikitin (Russian Federation)
  2005-2011
• Ms. Shaista Shameem (Fiji)
  2005-2010