Richard Pearshouse is a senior researcher with the Health and Human Rights Division, where his current work focuses on environmental health issues in Asia. He has also conducted extensive research on access to effective drug dependency treatment and human rights abuses in drug detention centers in south-east Asia.

Prior to joining Human Rights Watch in 2008, he was director of research and policy for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network where he worked on legislative frameworks to protect the human rights of people living with HIV. He has also worked as a legal advisor to the United Nations Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor, as a researcher for an East Timorese judicial monitoring organization, and as a field monitor with a Guatemalan human rights group. Richard received his his bachelor's degree (English literature) and his law degree from the University of Sydney and his master's degree in development studies from the Universitat Jaume I in Spain. He is a lawyer of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia. Richard is fluent in Spanish.