CONSULTANCY
Yousuf Syed Khan is also an independent consultant with over 12 years’ legal experience dealing with conflict situations across a range of countries and contexts, including: Ukraine; Syria; Afghanistan; Iraq; Libya; Gaza; the Golan Heights; Ethiopia; South Sudan; Belarus; and the former Yugoslavia. He is widely considered an expert on starvation as a method of warfare.
Yousuf is adept at drafting incisive legal analysis and working with the vast volumes of evidence that are typical of core international crimes. He is frequently quoted by the media for his legal analysis, including BBC World, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Reuters, France24, Deutsche Welle, The Independent, The Telegraph, CNBC, and Yahoo News.
For nearly a decade, Yousuf served with the United Nations where he led the public findings on several major conflicts, including the sieges of Aleppo and eastern Ghouta. He also regularly trained various State officials including the judiciary and law enforcement in Iraq and Afghanistan, on international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. Moreover, he is highly experienced in conducting in-country investigations in hostile conditions during active armed conflicts, and can be relied on to produce work of the highest standard under the most difficult circumstances.
Yousuf regularly provides specialist advice and tailored services, including:
- Drafting legal opinions
- Drafting comprehensive (public) reports
- Carrying out field investigations, including survivor, witness, and defector interviews
- Conducting trainings on international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law
- Providing legal assessments of open-source intelligence (OSINT) data, and
- Conflict analysis, including actor mapping, and geospatial analysis
He has been entrusted with strictly confidential empirical data and commissioned to produce in-depth studies and public reports on myriad violations and crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and two potential situations of genocide.
Yousuf's most recent clients include a prominent international organisation, for which he was contracted as an Expert to work on atrocity crimes determinations; a widely known NGO, for which he was commissioned to produce confidential reports; and [redacted], for which he provided considered legal analysis to support a national government pursuing war crimes prosecutions during an on-going armed conflict.
Due to the sensitive nature of much of his work, a more detailed description of recent consultancy projects may be discussed only by contacting Yousuf directly. If you would like to collaborate, please use the contact form on this site.