Niku Jafarnia

Niku Jafarnia (@NikuJafarnia) is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Researcher at the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), where she leads research and advocacy regarding issues of civilian protection across the MENA region and supports CIVIC’s country teams in Iraq and Yemen. Prior to joining CIVIC, Niku was a legal fellow with Mwatana for Human Rights, a Yemeni civil society organization, where she conducted research and analysis and contributed to litigation efforts regarding patterns of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law in the Yemeni conflict.

Before shifting her focus to armed conflict, she spent eight years providing legal assistance and conducting research with refugees and asylum-seekers in Turkey, Greece, Kenya, Jordan, Lebanon, Germany, and the US. She also was a Fulbright grantee in Turkey for two years.

Niku holds a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, a Master of Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UC Berkeley.