Allison Gill is a human rights lawyer, researcher, and advocate She joined ILRF in August 2019 as the Senior Cotton Campaign Coordinator, leading strategy for a multi-stakeholder coalition to eliminate forced and child labor in cotton production in Central Asia, and to open space for organizing and workers’ rights.
She has deep experience as a human rights investigator and advocate with more than 20 years’ experience working in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In additional to forced and child labor, Allison has researched and advocated on issues such as torture and ill-treatment, rule of law, religious persecution, arbitrary detention, migrant labor, freedoms of speech and association, and national security laws. Before joining ILRF, she was Senior Research and Policy Advisor to the Uzbek Forum, where she authored numerous reports and submissions to international bodies on forced labor in the cotton sector in Uzbekistan among other issues, developed research methodology and trained field monitors, oversaw independent monitoring of cotton farms participating in a sustainable cotton pilot program, and served on the steering committee of the Cotton Campaign.
Previously, Allison has consulted for numerous human rights organizations, was the Russia director for Human Rights Watch, based in Moscow and the Uzbekistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, based in Tashkent. She holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University with concentrations in international human rights law and conflict resolution; a Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law; and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Swarthmore College.