The Committee of Experts is an independent body composed of specialists with multidisciplinary expertise on the issues of torture and rehabilitation of victims. The experts contribute to scientific research, advocacy and awareness-raising activities. Their support strengthens the action of the RESST, ensuring authority and depth in the various areas of intervention.
Massimiliano Aragona
Psychiatrist, psychotherapist and philosopher, author of numerous books and scientific articles on clinical psychopathology, history and epistemology of psychiatry, phenomenological psychopathology, psychopathology of migration and psychopharmacology. He worked as a Director Psychiatrist at the Mental Health Departments of ASL Roma D and directed a Day Hospital for Eating Disorders for 10 years. Since 2016 he has been responsible for the UOS Mental Health at the INMP, an institute of the SSN specialized in migration and poverty. He is director of the open access journal Dialogues in Philosophy, Mental and Neuro Sciences.
Cristina Cattaneo
She is Full Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Milan, where she also teaches Anthropology, and is Director of LABANOF, Laboratory of Anthropology and Forensic Odontology and of MUSA (University Museum of Anthropological, Medical and Forensic Sciences for Human Rights). She is a consultant and expert for several Courts in Italy and Europe for forensic medical and anthropological forensic issues and involved with the Office of the Extraordinary Commissioner for Missing Persons in the identification of migrants who died at sea. She deals with victims of sexual and domestic violence, the forensic medical assessment of asylum seekers who are victims of torture and unaccompanied foreign minors. In 2021 she was one of the most cited forensic scientists internationally and is co-Editor in Chief of the journal “Forensic Science International”. She was awarded the Adelaide Medal, a scientific recognition of the International Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the Clyde Snow Award of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences for her work and research in forensic and humanitarian sciences. In 2017, she was awarded the title of Commendatore della Repubblica Italiana. She participates in television and radio broadcasts for the scientific dissemination of forensic medicine, forensic anthropology and the importance of identification.
Antonio Marchesi
Ph.D., European University Institute, teaches International Law at the University of Teramo and is Director of the Master in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at the American University of Rome. He also teaches in the Masters of the Italian Society for International Organization and has held courses at the Faculty of Philosophy of La Sapienza University and at John Cabot University. He has been an activist for Amnesty International since 1977 and has served on several occasions as President of the Italian section. He has collaborated with the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and Commission and several non-governmental organizations. From 2017 to 2023 he was a consultant to the National Guarantor of the rights of persons deprived of personal liberty. He is the author of over fifty scientific essays and articles and several books, mainly on the subject of international responsibility, protection of human rights and international criminal justice.
Mauro Palma
Mathematician (La Sapienza University of Rome, 1971), Doctor of Laws honoris causa from the UBA University of Buenos Aires (2009) and Doctor of Laws honoris causa from the Roma Tre University (2019). He was President of the National Guarantor of the rights of persons deprived of personal liberty, from the entry into force of this independent Authority of the Italian State, in February 2016 until 25 January 2024. He was (2012-2015) President of the European Council for Cooperation in the Enforcement of Penalties, a body of the Council of Europe. Founder of the Antigone Association, member, and then President, of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). He is one of the major international experts on the fight against torture and the various forms of deprivation of liberty, not only in the criminal field. He is President of the European Penological Center research center of the University of Roma Tre, as well as a member of the board of directors of the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies in Naples.
Chiara Peri
Senior researcher at the Psychoanalytic Institute for Social Research, she collaborated for 19 years with the Astalli Center, the Italian branch of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), holding roles such as project coordinator and advocacy manager. Author of numerous publications on forced migration and the asylum and reception system in Italy and Europe. She is a professor of the Advanced University Training Course “New horizons of cooperation and international law” (Lateran University).
Fabio Perocco
Professor of sociology at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where he teaches “Sociology of inequalities”, “Sociology of migration”, “Sociology of racism”. Head of the Social Research Laboratory, he deals with inequalities, migration, racism, transformations of work. On these topics he has participated in numerous research projects for national and international bodies including the European Commission, IOM, Fundamental Rights Agency. He is currently involved in the European projects MORE (on immigrant repatriation policies), Posting.Stat 2.0 (on posted workers), EXIT (on territorial inequalities in Europe). Member of several editorial committees, he is director of the magazine “Inequalities” and co-director of the series “Society and social transformations”. Author of about 220 publications in several languages. On the subject of torture and ill-treatment he published Les violences sexuelles contre les migrantes en Amérique Centrale et en Libye: un exemple d’économie politique de la violence; Migration and Torture in Today’s World; Torture and violence structure among migrants: the dehumanisation system in the Balkans; Torture against migrants: a structural and global phenomenon, and its social roots; Torture and migration.
Gianfranco Schiavone
Scholar of international migration, author of numerous publications on immigration law and asylum law, including Respinti (2021), Vite Sospese: profughi, richiesta asilo e rifugiati al Novecento ad oggi (2021), Ospiti svelati (2022) and Chiusi Dentro: I campi di confinemento nell’Europa del XXI secolo (2024). He is a member of the editorial committee of the Migrantes Report on the right to asylum and of the Idos Statistical Dossier on Immigration, and edits a monthly column on Altreconomia. Co-founder of the “Europasilo” network (a national network of organizations that deal with the protection and reception of refugees) and president of the ICS (Italian Consortium of Solidarity) which developed an innovative model of widespread reception in Trieste, in 2002 he was among the creators of the Italian legislation on reception, the development of which he has accompanied over the last 22 years. Member of ASGI (Association for Legal Studies on Immigration) of which he was vice-president, since 2018 he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Luchetta, Ota, D’Angelo, Hrovatin Foundation.
Kindi Taila
She has lived in Italy since 1989. She is a surgeon specializing in gynecology and obstetrics at the University of Modena. Since 2012 she has worked as a gynecological consultant at the AUSL of Modena. She obtained a 2nd level diploma in Post-graduate certificate in tropical medicine and International health in Brussels and a one-year Master’s degree in Ethnopsychiatry and psychology of migration at the A.T. Beck Institute in Rome. She worked as an expert at the Ministry for Integration during the Letta Government; she was a contact person for the Interministerial Task Force for combating violence against women and a contact person for the Interministerial Table for Unaccompanied Foreign Minors. President of the Deade Association, she collaborates with numerous associations dealing with human rights and international cooperation.
