David L. Richards

Who is David L. Richards?

David L. Richards is Associate Professor of Political Science and Human Rights at the University of Connecticut. He received his Ph.D. in 1999 from The State University of New York at Binghamton.

With David Cingranelli, Richards is the co-founder and co-director of the CIRI Human Rights Data Project, which provides annual ratings of government respect for 15 human rights in 195 countries, 1981-2010. CIRI's reports and activities have been kept on its blog since spring 2011.

His work on human rights has been funded multiple times by The National Science Foundation, The World Bank, GTZ, and others.

Richards has also used his expertise on the subject of human rights to draw attention to human rights abuses worldwide. For instance, he was an outspoken advocate for the divestment of Tennessee state government funds from companies that continue to do business with the Sudanese government during the War in Darfur.