Amnesty UK spokespeople

Sacha Deshmukh

Chief Executive Officer

Sacha has a long record of working in human rights, most recently on rights in war affecting families, children and displaced communities, but stretching back over 20 years in equalities and human rights. He spent six years as Chair of the Board of War Child UK and was previously the Vice Chair of Citizens Advice England & Wales.

Kristyan Benedict

Crisis & Tactical Campaign Manager

Kristyan’s work focuses on protecting civilians in conflicts such as those in Syria and Israel/Palestine, as well as developing Amnesty responses for sudden crises or other urgent work. He has a wide network of contacts around the world, especially among Syrian human rights activists. He is a frequent media commentator. Kristyan tweets @KreaseChan.

Chiara Capraro

Gender Justice Director

Chiara has a wide experience of women’s human rights issues, including working with migrant women in Italy, women living with HIV/AIDS, and sex workers in India. She has previously led women’s rights and gender equality policy at Christian Aid and Womankind Worldwide. She has been part of expert groups lobbying for women’s rights at the United Nations and has been published on women’s rights in various peer-reviewed journals.

Patrick Corrigan

Nations & Regions Director

Based in Amnesty’s Belfast office, Patrick’s work includes the legacy of the Troubles, press freedom, racism and refugee rights. Patrick has worked alongside victims of clerical child abuse and Mother and Baby Homes, is a founder of the Love Equality campaign for marriage equality, and a director of the Human Rights Consortium. An experienced political advocate at Stormont and Westminster, he is a frequent media commentator. Patrick tweets @PatrickCorrigan.

Tom Davies

I Welcome Refugees Campaign Manager

Tom is responsible for Amnesty UK’s campaign calling for an improved international response to the global refugee crisis. He co-chairs the #FamiliesTogether initiative to reunite refugee families in the UK, and helped found Amnesty’s highly-acclaimed Football Welcomes project working with clubs and refugees. Tom is an experienced media commentator. He tweets @tomdavies77.

Oliver Feeley-Sprague

Military, Security and Police Programme Director

Oliver has 25 years’ experience working on the global arms trade and UK policing. He gives evidence to various parliamentary committees and is a member of the National Taser Stakeholder Advisory Group. In 2018, he was part of the Amnesty team that helped publicly expose serious flaws within the Met Police’s “gangs matrix” database. Throughout the Yemen conflict he has provided expert comment on the UK’s arms exports to Saudi Arabia.

Peter Frankental

Economic Affairs Programme Director

Peter’s expertise include business impacts on human rights, international standards applicable to companies, and the civil and criminal liability of corporations. He is the author of a number of business and human rights publications, and is a frequent media commentator. He has been instrumental in Amnesty’s lobbying of the Premier League over the need for it to make the rules governing the ownership of English football clubs human rights-compliant.

Allan Hogarth

Head of Policy and Government Affairs

Allan has more than 20 years’ experience working on a range of human rights issues, including high-level advocacy. His work in helping to expose the failings of the Met Police’s “gangs matrix” database during 2018 led to him being invited to join the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime Reference group. Allan makes regular appearances in the UK media, including writing for the Huffington Post and Independent. Allan tweets @hogihogarth.

Felix Jakens

Head of Campaigns

As the Head of Campaigns, Felix is responsible for Amnesty’s priority campaigns – including on refugees and human rights defenders – as well as the organisation’s individuals at risk work. He is Amnesty’s main spokesperson on sportswashing issues, including with regard to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Felix tweets @felixjakens.

Kerry Moscogiuri

Campaigns Director

With 20 years’ experience at a senior level at Amnesty UK across a broad range of human rights campaigns, Kerry leads all of Amnesty UK’s campaigns and communications work. She is also responsible for Amnesty UK’s human rights education programme. She is a frequent media commentator, for example telling the Daily Telegraph in 2018 that the UK Government needed to "significantly escalate" its response to the jailing of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Naomi McAuliffe

Scotland Campaigns Director

Naomi is the lead spokesperson for the media in Scotland. She covers most human rights issues domestically and internationally, with particular expertise in women’s rights, sexual and reproductive rights, devolution, the Scottish Government’s international relations and Police Scotland. Naomi tweets @NaomiMc.

Ilyas Nagdee

Racial Justice Director

Ilyas's work at Amnesty focuses on civil liberties, policing, counter-terrorism, securitisation, and movement building related to racial justice. He has been published in both academic and non-academic publications on racism, religious discrimination, decolonisation, and civil liberties.

Nina Navid

Government and Political Relations Adviser

Nina is an Iran expert and leads Amnesty UK’s advocacy work on priority foreign affairs issues, including Iran and the arbitrary detention of British nationals and state level hostage situations, in addition to work focused on protecting civilians in conflicts from Ukraine to Israel/Palestine. Nina was the advocacy lead on Anoosheh Ashoori and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s cases and has made regular media appearances providing commentary and analysis on Iran. Photo by @maggileft.

Lydia Parker

Human Rights in the UK Campaigner

Lydia campaigns on Amnesty UK’s domestic work - including trans rights, the Domestic Abuse Bill, and online violence against women. She has experience of working and campaigning with individuals and groups at risk, as well as human rights defenders.  

Grainne Teggart

Northern Ireland Deputy Director

Grainne manages our campaigns, strategic litigation, media & political affairs across a range of issues, including Northern Ireland Troubles, sexual & reproductive rights, Human Rights Act in NI, Good Friday Agreement 25th anniversary & others. Grainne has extensive experience challenging human rights abuses, including with rights holders. Grainne is an experienced political advocate at Stormont, Westminster & beyond. Grainne is a regular media contributor, and tweets @GTeggart

Polly Truscott

Foreign Affairs Adviser

Polly leads Amnesty UK’s work on foreign affairs. She has more than 20 years’ experience of international human rights law and humanitarian work, including with the UN and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Areas of expertise include: UK foreign policy, UN human rights mechanisms, freedom of expression, abolition of the death penalty, conflict situations, peacekeeping and transitional justice. Polly tweets @pollyinthecity.

Steve Valdez-Symonds

Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme Director

Steve’s areas of expertise include forced migration, and UK policy and practice on immigration, asylum and citizenship - areas in which he has extensive experience. He has worked on successive immigration bills since 2006. He is the author of Amnesty’s response to the Home Office - Windrush lessons learned review - and regularly blogs for Amnesty. Steve tweets @stevesymondsAI.

Lucy Wake

Government and Political Relations Manager

Lucy has over 15 years’ experience of how the UK Government and Parliaments work on human rights issues, both at home and abroad. Lucy seeks to ensure Amnesty UK’s campaigning successfully secures commitments from the UK Government to promote and protect human rights, through both their foreign and domestic policy agendas. Lucy tweets @lucywake.