Michele Cavinato

Michele Cavinato is the Head of the Asylum and Migration Unit in UNHCR’s Protection Policy and Legal Advice Section/DIP.

He recently joined the position after working for more than two years as a Senior Legal Officer with the Bureau for the Middle East and North Africa. Before joining UNHCR headquarters in Geneva, he was a Policy and Legal Officer in UNHCR’s Bureau for Europe in Brussels where, inter alia, he focused on the recast of the EU acquis on Asylum. He worked with the United Nations in several field locations. In Uganda he led the protection cluster focussing on protection of internally displaced persons.

Previously he worked as a Child Protection Advisor with the UN Department of Peace Keeping Operation in Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo and as a UNHCR Protection Officer in Burundi. Before joining UNHCR in 2001, he worked with OSCE in Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina. He also collaborated with G.V.C, an Italian NGO.  He holds an LL.M and a Specialisation in EU Law from the University of Bologna, Italy and a Master on International Law, Development Policy and Management from the NOHA Network on Humanitarian Assistance (Bochum University (DE) and la Sapienza University (IT)).