Before joining the Rights Practice in 2011, Sophie was the International Development Manager in the International Office of St John. She has also worked as a Programme Officer for Voluntary Services Overseas in China and in the Beijing office of the British Council. She has a degree in Politics and East Asian Studies from Newcastle University.
Prior to joining The Rights Practice in 2007, Jennifer served as Program Officer for Asia at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and as Assistant Program Officer for China at the International Republican Institute. She has an MA in Law and Development and Asian Studies from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Li Yi is currently working on her PhD project on the history of the Chinese community in Burma at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London). Prior to studying the humanities Li Yi worked as an IT professional.
Nicola founded The Rights Practice in 2002 and is the former Director of the Great Britain-China Centre. She was educated at the University of Cambridge, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Fudan University and London University. She has an LLM in Human Rights and degrees in social anthropology and economics of education. Nicola is chair of her local panel of Independent Custody Visitors and is a Trustee of BOND, the UK membership body for NGOs working in international development.
Tim Millar has been working in the field of human rights since 2003. Previously he has worked as a field researcher in Gaza for the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, a Campaigner at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, as the Programs Officer at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, and in Kabul he was the Chief Human Rights Advisor to the Cooperation Center for Afghanistan and an advisor to the Parliamentary Drafting Committee on the Sunni Civil Law.
Su Nan studied law at Shanghai Maritime University and at University College London. She worked for a Chinese NGO before joining The Rights Practice in 2008.
Rosemary J Brown is an activist and writer specialising in human rights, homelessness and the environment. She is communications manager for The British Asian Trust and has worked for the Rainforest Foundation UK, Save the Children, Green America, Leader's Quest Foundation and UNESCO.
Professor Anthony Dicks QC is Emeritus Professor of Chinese Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.? He has been in practice in Hong Kong as a Barrister since 1968 and resumed practice in London in 1995.
Pauline Gleadle is a lecturer in management at The Open University Business School. She qualified as a chartered accountant with a large London firm, worked in industry for 3 years before becoming director of finance for a major NGO. She then moved into academia where her current teaching is focussed on management accounting and control, strategy and research methods.
Ebony Riddell has worked in human rights campaigning and advocacy for over eight years, including stints working for Amnesty International, Health Unlimited and Save the Children. She has specialist experience of international human rights law, aid and development, the right to health, public campaigning, the Russian Federation and Brazil. She is passionate about supporting grassroots activism and has spent time supporting afrodescendant community initiatives in northern Brazil. She has a Masters in Human Rights.
Roger Smith OBE is the director of JUSTICE, an all-party, British-based NGO. He is a solicitor and particularly interested in the development of publicly funded legal services, both in the UK and abroad. He is a visiting professor at the South Bank University and an honorary professor at the University of Kent. He has been director of legal education and training at the Law Society and director of the Legal Action Group.
Leo Williams has a background in the equality, human rights and coexistence sectors, having worked in Israel with Givat Haviva and Soccer for Peace, in Senegal with the Organisation Nationale des Droits de l'Homme and most recently with the UK Friends of the Abraham Fund Initiatives. Leo spent over two years as the Coordinator of the Scotland Malawi Partnership and he also founded and developed a Scottish charity which uses sport to combat racism and promote social inclusion. He is currently Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Officer at Bond (the UK membership body for NGOs working in international development).
Assistant Professor for Contemporary Tibetan Studies and Director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University, Professor Barnett founded the first Western teaching program in this field. Dr. Barnett has edited or written a number of books and articles on modern Tibet. Before joining Columbia in 1998, Professor Barnett worked as a journalist and researcher in the UK, specializing in Tibetan issues for the BBC, the South China Morning Post, VOA, the Guardian, the Independent and other media outlets. From 1987-1998, Dr. Barnett was director of an independent Tibet news and research project in London.
Ms. Freedson is currently a Senior Policy Consultant at the Children and Armed Conflict Accountability Project at Conflict Dynamics International. In the past she has served as Senior Strategy and Advocacy Consultant at the Global Coalition for Protecting Education from Attack; as Director of Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict at the International Rescue Committee and as a Legal Officer at the United Nations (UNMIK). She has authored a number articles including “Sudan’s Children at a Crossroads: An Urgent Need for Protection” (2007); “Caught in the Middle: Mounting Violations Against Children in Nepal’s Armed Conflict” (2005) and “Nothing Left to Lose: The Legacy of Armed Conflict and Liberian Children” (2004).
Professor Martin's professional experience has been built around his 29 years as executive director of Columbia's Center for the Study of Human Rights, which he co-founded in 1978. Prior to this, and later simultaneously, he was director of the Earl Hall Center at Columbia University; lecturer in the School of International and Public Affairs; and adjunct professor at the Teachers College. He has also served as director of the Human Rights and humanitarian affairs concentration at the School of International and Public Affairs, as well as academic advisor for the human rights concentration in the master's program of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Prior to his time at Columbia, Professor Martin was dean of residence and a lecturer at the then new University of Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland in Lesotho. Today he remains a senior scholar at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and continues to focus on human rights and human rights education. He has edited three collections of human rights documents and contributed to the Oxford Encyclopedia on Political Science and the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East.
Seymour is currently teaching (on developmental issues in western China) and conducting research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University. His research interests include Chinese politics with a focus on human rights, ethnic minorities, labor issues and the environment. He is the primary author of New Ghosts, Old Ghosts: Prisons and Labor Reform Camps in China (1998). He has also taught at New York University, where he served as chairman of the Politics Department.
Jennifer Smith: Ms. Smith is currently the Advocacy Director for the International Legal Foundation, an international nongovernmental organization that assists post-conflict countries in establishing public defender systems that provide effective, quality criminal defense services to the poor. She previously served as a public defender in Cambridge, Massachusetts and New York City. From 2004-2009, she worked for International Bridges to Justice, most recently as China director, based in Beijing. There she created, implemented and evaluated IBJ’s China Defender Program, an innovative project aimed at developing China’s emerging legal aid system and protecting the fair trial rights of indigent accused persons. Earlier, she worked in Cambodia, where she conducted a nationwide survey of its juvenile justice system and reported on the persistent use of torture to extract confessions.