Judith Sunderland

Judith Sunderland is a senior advisor in the Refugee and Migrant Rights division. Her work focuses on the impact of abusive migration and asylum policies on people’s lives and rights. She has documented pushbacks and violence at European Union (EU) land borders, the failure of EU states to protect life at sea, the obstruction of nongovernmental humanitarian rescue at sea, and the erosion of the right to asylum in the EU including through externalization.

Sunderland previously worked in Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, where in addition to documenting abuses against migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, she covered a wide range of human rights issues. These include racist violence in Italy and Greece, police discrimination affecting minority youth in France, and the impact of Spain’s housing crisis on immigrants and women heads of household. Early in her career at Human Rights Watch, Sunderland covered Latin America in the organization’s Women’s Rights division.

Before joining Human Rights Watch, Sunderland worked as a UN human rights observer in the UN Mission in Guatemala and as a journalist covering Central America. Sunderland is a graduate of Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs and the University of Chicago. She speaks French, Spanish, and Italian.