[2] Edwards began working at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1998 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by field assignments in Rwanda (twice) and Morocco, rising to become Chief of Section – Protection Policy and Legal Advice, the key institutional legal position, from 2010 until 2015.

She was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in July 2022, taking up the position in August 2022.

[9] She has warned the Hong Kong courts not to rely on evidence purportedly obtained via torture in mainland China, in the trial of Jimmy Lai.

[12] She also raised the cases of his colleagues Liliya Chanysheva, Vadim Ostanin and Daniel Kholodny who remain detained.

She wrote to airlines and aviation regulators together with Gehad Madi and Siobhán Mullally in April 2024 to caution them against moving people seeking asylum to Rwanda on behalf of the British Government as they could be "compliant" in creating human rights violations.