Dr Brian Dooley is Irish human rights author and activist, and Senior Advisor at Washington DC–based NGO Human Rights First. For almost 30 years Brian has worked in war and conflict zones, including Lebanon and Gaza in the 2000s on behalf of Amnesty International, engaging with governments and others to end threats to human rights activism. Since 2022, he has made 20 trips to Ukraine, primarily to Kharkiv, which is rarely visited by foreign audiences.