Alison Parker, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's US program, has specialized expertise in immigration law and youth incarceration. She divides her time between research and advocacy on youth offenders sentenced to life without parole and on human rights abuses against non-citizens in the US. Previously, she was a Sandler fellow and acting director of Human Rights Watch's refugee policy program, where she documented and advocated against violations of the rights of refugees and internally displaced persons. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Parker worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Jesuit Refugee Service, and the law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, and Hamilton. Parker, a published author, is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. 

Human Rights Watch Reports

Forced Apart (By the Numbers): Non-citizens Deported Mostly for Nonviolent Offenses (April 15, 2009)

Mixed Results: US Policy and International Standards on the Rights and Interests of Victims of Crime (September 23, 2008)

Executive Summary: The Rest of Their Lives (May 1, 2008)

Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: During its Consideration of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Periodic Reports of the United States of America (February 6, 2008)

Forced Apart: Families Separated and Immigrants Harmed by United States Deportation Policy (July 16, 2007)

The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States (October 12, 2005)

Hidden in Plain View: Refugees Living Without Protection in Nairobi and Kampala (November 21, 2002)

Flight From Iraq: Attacks on Refugees and Other Foreigners and Their Treatment in Jordan (May 10, 2003)

Articles

"Hezbollah's Rockets and Civilian Casualties," CounterPunch, September 22, 2006

"Inalienable Rights," American Prospect, October 1, 2004