Steve Swerdlow

Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher, investigates and advocates on a wide range of issues in Uzbekistan and the post-Soviet region. He has more than ten years experience working on human rights issues in the former Soviet Union.

Swerdlow was a fellow in the US State Department’s Young Leaders for Public Service program in Russia before becoming a human rights monitor for the Union of Council for Soviet Jews. There, he focused on ethnic discrimination and refugee-related issues in Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.  He later worked for CARE International in Georgia and for the European Centre for Minority Issues.  Swerdlow also worked at the International Organization for Migration in Russia, helping to administer the US Meskhetian Turk Resettlement Program. 

Before joining Human Rights Watch, Swerdlow practiced whistleblower and human rights law in San Francisco at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP and served as a federal law clerk to the Honorable Judge Dean Pregerson of the US District Court for the Central District of California. He received a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley and his master’s in international affairs from Columbia University, with a certificate in post-Soviet studies from the Harriman Institute.   

Articles Authored

Other Writing

• Uzbekistan Can't Muzzle the Messenger