Sophie Richardson is an activist and scholar of Chinese politics, human rights, and foreign policy. She received her doctorate from the University of Virginia, a certificate from the Hopkins-Nanjing Program, and her BA from Oberlin College. From 2006 to 2023, Dr. Richardson served as the China Director at Human Rights Watch. She has published extensively on human rights, and testified to the Canadian Parliament, European Parliament
, and the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Dr. Richardson is the Co-Executive Director of CHRD, a coalition of Chinese and international human rights non-governmental organisations dedicated to the promotion of human rights through peaceful efforts to push for democratic and rule of law reforms and to strengthen grassroots activism in China. In 2024 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, where she researched the efforts of democracies to promote and protect human rights under repressive Chinese governments and the growing threats of repressive Chinese governments to human rights in democracies. Dr. Richardson is also advising several China-focused human rights organizations.
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