ABOUT US

The essentials of Donations and Democracy are explained on the homepage of this website. As mentioned there, the initiative is anchored in democracy, human rights and rule of law concerns.

Donations and Democracy, registered as an LLC in New York, is an independent, non-partisan initiative, without connection to any other organization, and with no outside funding. 

Our team

The work of Donations and Democracy is carried out by a team of volunteers with professional backgrounds, including international human rights lawyers. They are nationals of the United States and United Kingdom. All are working without pay. 

The team is advised by an International Advisory Network: a consultative body of 50 leading experts on international human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Advisory Network members serve in their personal capacities rather than as representatives of any organization or university. They do not play a role in compiling the donations data, and are not responsible for the content of our country briefings or website.

Christopher Avery, an international human rights lawyer, is managing Donations and Democracy on a voluntary basis, without pay. From 1983-1995 Chris worked at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London, first as Legal Adviser (including representing the organization at the United Nations in Geneva), then as Deputy Head of the 130-member Research Department. Chris was Founder-Director (2002-2013) of the independent, non-profit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, headquartered in London with researchers across the world. The Resource Centre tracks the human rights impacts (positive and negative) of thousands of companies worldwide. Mary Robinson, formerly President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Chair of the Resource Centre’s International Advisory Network, said: "No debate can move forward, no positive change can be made, without facts. The Resource Centre is the only website to provide such a broad range of balanced information on business and human rights – company by company, country by country, issue by issue.” The Financial Times profiled the Resource Centre in an article entitled “A Fair Approach to Human Rights”: “The Resource Centre has won a big following among companies, governments, investors, non-government organisations and journalists.” The Resource Centre was recipient of the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights in 2013, awarded by the University of Connecticut to commemorate Dodd’s work as Executive Trial Counsel at the Nuremberg Trials; the prize recognizes "individuals or groups who have made significant efforts to advance the cause of international justice and global human rights." Chris is Chair of Human Rights and Business Award Foundation, which gives an annual award for outstanding work by human rights defenders in the Global South or former Soviet Union countries addressing the human rights impacts of business in those regions. There is no connection between the above organizations and Donations and Democracy. In 1997 Chris was Stanford University's seventh Visiting Mentor: a program sponsored by the university’s Haas Center for Public Service that "brings distinguished professionals in public service to a week-long residency on campus, where they speak with students, faculty and staff…sharing experiences and the choices they made in their careers”. Chris was educated at: Columbia University School of Law (LLM focused on international law and human rights law); University of California, Davis, School of Law (JD; Order of the Coif; Corpus Juris Secundum Award, awarded by faculty to the graduating law student who "made the greatest contribution to legal scholarship"); Stanford University (BA History - Honors; Weter Prize for Outstanding History Honors Thesis).