Jessica Evans

Jessica Evans is the Senior Researcher/Advocate for International Financial Institutions (IFI) at Human Rights Watch, urging the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and regional development banks to respect human rights in all of their activities. She has investigated IFI projects, programs, and policies which violate human rights or IFI policies directly or indirectly.

Jessica was formerly the researcher on the Philippines in the Asia division at Human Rights Watch. She has investigated various political killings, torture, and abductions in the Philippines and encouraged Philippine government officials to implement systemic changes to stop the killings and hold perpetrators accountable.

Prior to joining Human Rights Watch in 2009, she worked as a practicing attorney, based in Perth, Western Australia and as the attorney general's principal policy officer where she ran his law reform agenda. She has lived and worked in Fiji where she investigated human rights abuses by the military government following the December 2006 coup d'état. Evans received her law and arts (politics and international studies) degrees from the Murdoch University and her master's degree in international human rights from the Columbia University School of Law.

Jessica has appeared on BBC, Al Jazeera, and NPR.