Katie Redford

Wellesley High School Author: Katie Redford (1986)

          Inspired by her sophomore thesis author, John Steinbeck, Katie has lived a life of passionate activism. She is a human rights lawyer who is credited with spearheading a movement to hold international companies accountable for overseas abuse in their home court jurisdictions, and in doing so, opened up new possibilities in human rights law.  Along with her husband, human rights activist Ka Hsaw Wa from Burma/Myanmmar, she is the co-founder of EarthRights International, a non-profit group of activists, organizers, and lawyers with expertise in human rights, the environment, and corporate/government accountability.  Katie left EarthRights in 2019 after 25 years to lead the newly founded Equation Campaign, a ten-year funding initiative working to bring about a safe future by enhancing the power of movements to keep oil and gas in the ground. She has published on various issues associated with human rights and corporate accountability, in addition to co-authoring ERI reports such as “In Our Court, Shock and Law,” and “Total Denial Continues.”  In 2006, Redford was selected as an Ashoka Global Fellow.

            Katie has just published The Revolution Will Not be Litigated: People Power and Legal Power in the 21st Century (OR Books, 2023).