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The Future and You

A Reminder of the Rights We Can’t Afford to Forget —
Reflections on Freedom, Responsibility and What It Means to Be Human

By Emma Gilligan
(ELG BOOKS, Bloomington, 2025)

What holds us together when the world feels fractured? In The Future and You, Emma Gilligan offers a quiet but powerful meditation on the enduring role of human rights and how they can ground us in a shifting world.

Written as a letter to her great-nephew and future generations, this deeply personal book draws on Gilligan’s lifelong commitment to global justice and moral responsibility, from the war-torn landscapes of Chechnya and Ukraine to the lecture halls of Indiana University. With clarity and purpose, she reflects on freedom, duty, dignity and the fragile beauty of being human.

Presented as a series of reflections, each centered on a fundamental human right, the book blends Gilligan’s values and lived experience to offer a framework for daily life.

This is not a manifesto or a memoir. It’s a reminder that we don’t exist in a vacuum and that courage, compassion and responsibility are already within us. We need only return to them.

The Future and You invites readers to remember that the freedoms to speak openly, move freely, live securely and be cared for are not guaranteed — they must be protected, practiced and passed on.

If you’re seeking resilience, understanding or a sense of direction in uncertain times, you’ll find insight and reassurance woven throughout this concise yet powerful read. Gilligan’s whimsical illustrations add warmth and imagination to her call for introspection and renewal.

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Front Cover
Back Cover

Check inside

The Future and You Cover

Pre-Order printed copy for early December delivery at:

Big Cartel

Audio book available at:

Everand
Kobo
Barnes & Noble

Download Media Kit:

Front Cover
Back Cover

Illustrations

Reviews

I feel everyone will not only benefit from this book but will also be moved to start some of the changes our planet needs.
Kate Braun—Actress, Award winning film, Bloom
"Even though The Future and You talks about climate change and the Internet, it feels like a timeless book. If not for those very modern references, it could be the meditations of an ancient Greek philosopher or enlightenment thinker. It also has the feeling of knowledge that we already knew but hadn’t put into words for ourselves. Every insight, every piece of life advice, made me think, “Of course!”. It is distilled wisdom delivered as common sense. I’ve rarely encountered a book that I would give as a Christmas gift to both my 90-year-old neighbor and my 10 year-old niece. But “The Future and You” is indeed such a book."
Gary Williams—Screenwriter and Playwright for Paramount, MGM, United Artists, and the BBC. Films include, So B.It and Larger than Life.
"The Future and You is an intensely personal journey and marvelously readable text that should be seen by everyone. I was drawn to the way it beautifully scopes these important issues and makes them tangible to readers of all ages."
Alex Tratensek— Diplomat with background on human rights issues in Europe and Eurasia
“My thanks to the author for the privilege of reading her compelling and important letter to your nephew along with her beautiful, inspired artwork. I plan to share it widely.”
Judith F— Human Resources Consultant and Practitioner

TERROR IN CHECHNYA

Russia and the Tragedy of Civilians in War

By Emma Gilligan
(Princeton UP, Princeton 2010)

Terror in Chechnya is the definitive account of Russian war crimes in Chechnya. Emma Gilligan provides a comprehensive history of the second Chechen conflict of 1999 to 2005, revealing one of the most appalling human rights catastrophes of the modern era―one that has yet to be fully acknowledged by the international community. Drawing upon eyewitness testimony and interviews with refugees and key political and humanitarian figures, Gilligan tells for the first time the full story of the Russian military’s systematic use of torture, disappearances, executions, and other punitive tactics against the Chechen population.

In Terror in Chechnya, Gilligan challenges Russian claims that civilian casualties in Chechnya were an unavoidable consequence of civil war. She argues that racism and nationalism were substantial factors in Russia’s second war against the Chechens and the resulting refugee crisis. She does not ignore the war crimes committed by Chechen separatists and pro-Moscow forces. Gilligan traces the radicalization of Chechen fighters and sheds light on the Dubrovka and Beslan hostage crises, demonstrating how they undermined the separatist movement and in turn contributed to racial hatred against Chechens in Moscow.

A haunting testament of modern-day crimes against humanity, Terror in Chechnya also looks at the international response to the conflict, focusing on Europe’s humanitarian and human rights efforts inside Chechnya. 

Her book was awarded the 2011 Lemkin Award for the best study in international crimes from the Institute for the Study of Genocide.

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Winner of the 2011 Lemkin Award
Institute for the Study of Genocide

Terror in Chechnya cover

Available at:

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Watch Round Table at Columbia University on her book:

Reviews

"Emma Gilligan's book chronicles Moscow's brutal response to the republic's demand for freedom, an onslaught that has shattered Chechen society, fuelled armed resistance across the Caucasus and bred a new generation of violent extremists. She focuses on the second Chechen war, started by Boris Yeltsin in autumn 1999 and pursued by Vladimir Putin when he stepped up from the prime minister's post to the Kremlin in 2000. . . . Her thorough research is enlivened by testimony from Chechen victims of Russian troops and their local henchmen."
—Irish Times
"Gilligan provides the definitive history of Russian policies toward Chechnya in the period from 1999 to the present. Utilizing first-person interviews and documents from Russian, US, and international nongovernmental organizations, she narrates the events of the First and Second Chechen wars, the rise of Chechen terrorism, and the events at Beslan within a larger context of human rights, making comparisons to other 20th-century situations including those in Bosnia. . . . She has created a history remarkably free of technical jargon and specialist vocabulary that should serve as a good introduction to the subject and region for students and scholars of history, political science, and international law."
—Choice
"Terror in Chechnya is perhaps the most important book about the Chechen war available in English today."
Anna Brodsky— Russian Review
"[Gilligan's] book is an important contribution to the literature. Her multilayered approach, her ability to highlight competing perspectives, and her insights into the way future investigations of human rights abuses could be conducted make her work a valuable contribution to the study of human rights."
Maria Raquel Freire— Perspectives on Politics
"[T]he Chechen conflict, as a research subject, should be more frequently addressed to from the various perspectives. Gilligan's book is a solid pioneering piece of work in this direction."
Kiryl Kascian—Central European Journal of International and Security Studies
"Emma Gilligan's book is an invaluable guide to the tragic consequences for Chechnya—and Russia—of a twin dynamic that has dominated post-Soviet Russian politics: the use of violence to maintain the territorial dimensions of the state, and the resilience of authoritarian politics."
Simon Cosgrove—Europe-Asia Studies
"This book constitutes a major step forward in the study of war crimes and human rights violations during the second Russo-Chechen war. In Gilligan's view, the principal objective of the Russian leadership was the subjugation and punishment of the Chechen populace. Her book is unprecedented in scope. Henceforth, those interested in this subject will turn first to this volume as a treasure trove of information."
John B. Dunlop—author of Russia Confronts Chechnya
“This is an important study of the human rights disaster that befell the people of Chechnya in the wake of renewed warfare between Russian armed forces and the breakaway republic in 1999. Terror in Chechnya, is a valuable contribution to our understanding of a long-neglected human rights tragedy.”
Matthew Evangelista—author of The Chechen Wars

Defending Human Rights in Russia

Sergei Kovalyov, Dissident and Human Rights Commissioner, 1969-2003

By Emma Gilligan
(Routledge, United Kingdom, 2003)

In Defending Human Rights in Russia, Emma Gilligan offers a powerful portrait of Sergei Kovalyov, one of the Soviet Union’s most courageous dissidents and a key voice in Russia’s early push for democracy. Drawing on extensive research and first-hand insight, Gilligan traces Kovalyov’s journey from respected biologist to human rights activist, detailing his 1974 arrest by the KGB, his years in prison and internal exile, and his return to public life in the 1980s.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Kovalyov was appointed chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Commission under President Boris Yeltsin and later elected Russia’s first Human Rights Ombudsman. Gilligan documents his efforts to build a legal foundation for democracy, including his work drafting the human rights provisions of the 1993 Russian Constitution and related legislation. She also captures the political tensions of the time, showing how a new legal framework often clashed with lingering authoritarian practices.

As Russia shifted again in the late 1990s with the rise of Vladimir Putin and the onset of the second Chechen war, Kovalyov found himself pushed to the political margins. Still, he remained an unwavering advocate for justice.

Part biography, part political history, Defending Human Rights in Russia offers a close look at the personal convictions, compromises, and courage that defined a generation of activists and reformers.

Articles

Chechen Compensation Cases: War Crimes, Domestic Litigation and Moral Harm in the Russian Federation”—Journal of Comparative Law, 2020.

“Propaganda and the Question of Criminal Intent: the Semantics of the Zachistka”—Europe-Asia Studies, 2016

Defending Human Rights in Russia

Available at:

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Reviews

“Emma Gilligan, an Australian historian who spent five years in Moscow working for the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, has now published a gracefully written and carefully researched biography of Sergei Kovalev.”
Aryeh Neier—The New York Review of Books
“Piecing together the career of Sergei Kovalyov from interviews and archival material, Gilligan shows how the obstacles that the indomitable human rights defender encountered under Leonid Brezhnev continued to block his way after Boris Yeltsin took power…. As hard as Kovalyov and his colleagues worked, Russia failed to escape what Kovalyov called its ‘cave-dwelling legal consciousness.’ Gilligan’s book makes clear how hard he tried.”
Joshua Rubenstein—The Moscow Times
“Emma Gilligan’s splendid study of Kovalyov’s courageous struggle for human rights [demonstrates his]...long personal struggle against repression and for reform, undaunted by prison, labor camp, and exile.”
Peter Juviler—The Russian Review
“Defending Human Rights in Russia provides a fascinating insight into the activities of a notable proponent of civil liberties and international legal norms over several decades”
Edwin Bacon—The Slavic Review
“By illuminating the tensions in which Sergei Kovalev operated, Emma Gilligan succeeds in moving beyond the biographical framework to focus on the political situation… this work is an impressive document of Kovalev's commitment to human rights.”
Anke Stephan—Sehepunkte