Erin Kilbride

Erin Kilbride is a former researcher in the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, investigating sexual exploitation, sex workers’ rights, and human trafficking. She is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and recipient of the Gender+ Justice Faculty Fellowship for her research into the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in anti-trafficking operations.

Erin joined Human Rights Watch in 2022 as a researcher in the LGBT rights program, leading a 26-country investigation into violence against LBQ+ women. From 2015-2022, Erin worked at Front Line Defenders, providing emergency support to human rights defenders at risk. She has authored dozens of investigative reports into military trials of civilians, attacks on women human rights defenders, and sexual violence perpetrated by security forces. She wrote the first global report on sex worker rights defenders at risk and has worked with several migrant rights collectives on border demilitarization and Search & Rescue missions. Her reporting and analysis has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, NPR, HuffPost, and Wall Street Journal.