London

ABOUT US

Human Rights Watch is a leading international organisation dedicated to defending and promoting human rights around the world. Human Rights Watch researchers work to uncover human rights violations by investigating sites of abuse and speaking first-hand with witnesses and authorities. By exposing these abuses and shining a spotlight where they occur, Human Rights Watch's work gives a voice to victims, generates intense international pressure on governments for action and raises the cost to perpetrators of committing abuses. Human Rights Watch pursues perpetrators of abuses until they are brought to justice.

The London Eye lit blue for Human Rights Day 2018. ©

MEET THE LONDON TEAM

UK Advocacy and Media
The UK advocacy and communications team are responsible for conducting targeted advocacy towards the UK government and parliamentarians. They are also in charge of the organisation’s outreach to the UK media. If you are a member of the press with a media query, please contact HRW Press at hrwpress@hrw.org.

Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director
Anthony Gale, Senior Media Officer

Development & Outreach
The Development & Outreach team is the key contact for the London Committee. The team is responsible for organising fundraising and outreach events. They are the focal point for liaising with supporters, the London Committee and the Board of Directors.

James Bowers, UK Director
Jessica Jones, UK Senior Manager
Tamanna Abdi, UK Coordinator

Staff members based in London

Elaine Pearson, Asia Director
Sam Dubberley, Managing Director, Technology, Rights and Investigations
Benjamin Ward, Deputy Director, Europe and Central Asia Division
Bryony Lau, Deputy Director, Asia Division
Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Director, Asia Division
Clive Baldwin, Senior Legal Advisor
Anna Bacciarelli, Senior Artificial Intelligence Researcher, Technology, Rights and Investigations
Bridget Sleap, Senior Researcher, Rights of Older People
Fereshta Abbasi, Researcher, Asia Division
Yalkun Uluyol, China Researcher, Asia Division
Miriam Rodero, Grant Writer, Development and Outreach
Rhys McGhee, Acting Onboarding Manager, Human Resources
Nishita Anand, Training and Support Associate, Fundraising Systems and Data Analytics

OUR LONDON COMMITTEE

The London Committee is comprised of active, long term supporters of Human Rights Watch living in and around London. It forms part of the Human Rights Watch Council, an international network of Committees and Ambassadors who advance the efforts of Human Rights Watch by organising conferences, briefings and other events, engaging in targeted advocacy initiatives, and assisting in important development and outreach programs.

CONTACT US

E-mail londondev@hrw.org to sign up for London news and/or events (please put 'News' or 'Events' in the subject line) or for any queries about fundraising or donations. To volunteer at one of our events, please put 'Volunteering' in the subject line. Do note, we do not accept employment or internship requests. Vacancies can be found on the HRW Career Portal.

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News

February 16, 2021

Join us for this year's London Human Rights Watch Film Festival!

We are proud to present the 25th edition of the London Human Rights Watch Film Festival, running from March 18-26, 2021.

For the first time ever, in partnership with Barbican Cinema, we are presenting a full digital edition of 10 emboldening new films from around the world, available across the UK, featuring in-depth online discussions with filmmakers, film participants, and Human Rights Watch researchers.

This year’s programme shines a spotlight on identities, viewpoints, and stories all too often unheard, empowering courageous individuals on both sides of the lens to raise their voices and push for change.

Will you help us to champion these stories, to bring these human rights issues to life and to reach broader audiences than ever? Click here to become a Film Festival Champion today.

By becoming a HRW Film Festival Champion, you can join us in celebration of film, the human story and the power of our shared mission toward justice and dignity for all. You’ll join Human Rights Watch as we delve deeper into some of today’s most pressing issues, from the rights of women over their bodies, to the crackdown on truth and free speech by illiberal governments, to the power of fear in stoking prejudice, hate and discrimination – and you’ll be supporting the causes that speak most to your heart.

Don't miss it - buy your tickets here.
July 27, 2020

Remembering our dear friend Tony Elliott

With deep sadness, we share the news that our dear friend Tony Elliott has passed away.

Tony is most well known for being the founder of Time Out. A touching obituary of Tony’s life and legacy was published in the Guardian earlier this week, and another in the New York Times, which speaks to the huge impact he had upon the publishing industry and beyond.

But beyond these immense successes, Tony was also a part of the fabric of Human Rights Watch, and in particular our London community. Tony became a London Committee member during our seminal years in London in the late 1990’s, served as the chair of the London Committee for a number of years and was a member of HRW Board of Directors from 2006 through to 2015.

At HRW, we were so fortunate to work so closely with Tony. In the formative years of the London Committee, our HRW Film Festival and our outreach activities in London, Tony made sure that he supported us in every way he could - ensuring that the HRW Film Festival film listings were published in Time Out, publishing our job postings in the magazine, lending us marketing and public relations expertise and regularly arranging editorials on human rights issues. And when Time Out went global, Tony made sure that HRW was also able to benefit from this globalization, connecting us to the new Time Out franchises in New York, Chicago, Istanbul and beyond. Tony was the driving force behind so many of our London initiatives bridging art, culture and human rights – including our Cries from the Heart series, which brought the powerful combination of famous actors, playwrights and human rights issues to our audiences. None of this would have been possible without Tony’s introductions, generosity and creative spirit and energy.

Tony invested in HRW just as if it was his own business - he brought the same energy, vision, thought and strategy that he brought to Time Out to propel our London presence into a vibrant community of like-minded individuals holding the shared belief that protecting and defending human rights would make the world a better place. Tony, his wife Janey and his 3 children were very much part of the HRW family, and hosted us at their home on many occasions.

In many ways it was the initiatives that Tony pioneered that have shaped us as an organisation – advocating for a HRW that is diverse and inclusive, an organisation that speaks to the younger generation, that has links across a spectrum of fields especially with culture, music, theatre and the arts. He always wanted us to be brave and ambitious.

It is a true testament to Tony’s legacy that we have just held our first big public engagement event – The Future We Build Together - reaching out to thousands of new human rights activists across the globe. This is exactly the direction he was pushing us for more than 20 years, and we only wish that he was still with us to have seen it together. We are so grateful to have had the chance to call Tony a dear friend, and for the tremendous impact that he had upon our work at Human Rights Watch. We will miss him dearly.
July 27, 2020

HRW Virtual Book Club

Our new Human Rights Watch Virtual Book Club series offers the chance to explore human rights issues through the lens of award-winning books sent right to your door.

Pairing leading authors with Human Rights Watch researchers, we’ll explore today’s pressing calls for social change around the world, touching on issues of race, democracy, misinformation and more, and featuring best-selling authors such as Afua Hirsch, Elif Shafak and Hisham Matar. If you haven’t already, do sign up here to join us today.

The first event, featuring best-selling author, barrister and journalist Afua Hirsch and Human Rights Watch's US Program Director Nicole Austin-Hillery, will focus on Afua’s Sunday Times bestseller, Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging – a powerful book that reveals the uncomfortable truth about race and identity in Britain today. The discussion will explore the denial that surrounds Britain’s imperial past and the racism that plagues its present, and offer an urgent call for change.

For more information on what’s to come, and to sign up for the series, do make sure to visit hrw.org/londonbookclub.

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