Jane Buchanan

Jane Buchanan is Associate Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch and serves part-time as Associate Director in the Children’s Rights Division. Since 2005, she has conducted research and advocacy on human rights issues in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, including on police violence, media freedom, property rights, disability rights, and abuses against children in state orphanages. Her other area of focus is child labor in tobacco farming, which she documented in several countries including in the United States, as part of a long-term advocacy campaign to improve supply chain labor practices among leading international tobacco companies. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Moscow Times, the Huffington Post and other publications. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Buchanan served as the executive director of the Russian Justice Initiative in Moscow. She holds a master's degree in international affairs and economics from Johns Hopkins University and graduated summa cum laude from Bowdoin College.