Alice Farmer is the Legal Officer for UNHCR’s Washington D.C. office. The office serves as a resource to policymakers in drafting and implementing refugee protection measures; monitors U.S. compliance with international standards; and assists asylum-seekers and their representatives in presenting claims. Ms. Farmer oversees strategic litigation and judicial engagement, directs programming on children in the U.S., and works to ensure due process and access to counsel for asylum-seekers. Previously, Ms. Farmer served as the protection officer in the Washington office.
Prior to joining the Washington office, Ms. Farmer worked on refugee and human rights issues in various capacities for Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, as well as in other offices of UNHCR. Ms. Farmer has researched and published on the human rights of children in displacement in more than twelve countries. Ms. Farmer, in her capacity at Human Rights Watch, created and led the organization’s global campaign against immigration detention of children.
Ms. Farmer started her legal career with the U.S. Department of Justice Honors Program, in the Executive Office for Immigration Review. She has lectured on human rights at Harvard Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), and published with Oxford’s Forced Migration Review, the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, among others. Ms. Farmer holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law, a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School, and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College.