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Sarah Leah Whitson

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Sarah Leah Whitson
Alma mater • University of California, Berkeley (Bachelor of Arts, 1988)
 • Harvard Law School (Juris Doctor, 1991)
EmployerHuman Rights Watch

Sarah Leah Whitson is an American and director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

Early life and education

Whitson was reared by an Armenian American mother, Ashi Whitson, who was born in the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem's Old City and immigrated to the United States in 1960. Her father was an American from Texas. She was a student at Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School for 12 years in Los Angeles and spent childhood summers with family in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.[1]

In 1988, Whitson graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, located in Berkeley, California, taking time to study abroad in Egypt.[1] In 1991, she graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from the Harvard Law School, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2]

Career

Whitson is director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.[3] She has published articles on the Middle East in international and regional publications and has led dozens of advocacy missions throughout the region and has overseen numerous research missions and reports on human rights conditions there.[3] She was previously employed by Goldman Sachs, an American bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm, and the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. Whitson served two terms on the board of directors of the New York chapter American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, in 2001 and 2002.[4][5] She served as general counsel to the Center for Economic and Social Rights, and travelled on human rights missions to Iraq for the organization, and also volunteered for the Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights and the Armenian Bar Association, of which she remains a member. Whitson also carried out human rights work for the Harvard Study Team and International Study Team missions examining the impact of war and sanctions on the Iraqi civilian population, the International Human Rights Law Group's election-monitoring mission in Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq.[2]

According to The New Republic, after completing law school, she became a corporate attorney "but pursued activism on the side, volunteering for, among other groups, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (where she was co-organizer of a delegation in 2002 that lobbied Kofi Annan to press ahead with a United Nations investigation of Israel's Jenin operation) and MADRE (a women’s rights group, with which she traveled to Lebanon on a solidarity mission in 1996 after an Israeli bombing campaign)."[1]

Controversy

In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, February 24, 2011, weeks after the rebellion against the Libyan regime had intensified, Whitson acknowledged the absence of human rights "reforms" in Libya. "With no progress on any institutional or legal reforms... For sure, most Libyans we spoke with never had much faith that Moammar Qaddafi would learn new tricks, or that the announced reforms were anything more than an endless loop of promises made and broken."[6] Jeffrey Goldberg, writing in the Atlantic Monthly, claims that Whitson had "something of a soft spot" for Qaddafi and his son, Seif Islam, in an earlier article in which Whitson expressed hope that changes would continue to take place in Libya.[7]

In May 2009, Whitson was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal op-ed when she led a HRW fund-raising trip to Saudi Arabia.[8] Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic opined on his personal portion of the magazine's website that "the director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division is attempting to raise funds from Saudis, including a member of the Shura Council (which oversees, on behalf of the Saudi monarchy, the imposition in the Kingdom of the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic law) in part by highlighting her organization's investigations of Israel, and its war with Israel's "supporters," who are liars and deceivers. It appears as if Human Rights Watch, in the pursuit of dollars, has compromised its integrity."[9] Human Rights Watch says these allegations are false and unsubstantiated. According to Human Rights Watch, the organization has never tried to raise funds from any government or government official, including any member of the Saudi Shura Council, and Human Rights Watch never described a “war with Israel’s supporters” or used the words “liars and deceivers” at any point. HRW notes that staffers made two presentations in Saudi Arabia in May 2009 in private homes to people who were interested in Human Rights Watch. Among an estimated 50 guests at a reception in Riyadh, there were three with governmental affiliations, "the spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior; the deputy head of the Human Rights Commission, a governmental organization; and a member of the Shura Council, a government-appointed consultative body."[10] According to HRW, none of those individuals were solicited for funds and HRW never accepts funds from government officials in any country.[11] HRW stated that there is no reason why Saudi citizens cannot legitimately want to support human rights.[11]

Personal life

Whitson is married to Josh Zinner, co-director of Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project in New York City. They have two children, Lena and Toby.[12]

Selected articles

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Minority Report Human Rights Watch Fights a Civil War over Israel". The New Republic. April 27, 2010.
  2. ^ a b [1]. Harvard Arab Alumni Associastion.
  3. ^ a b HRW website
  4. ^ Bernstein, David (November 5, 2009). "Human Rights Watch Needs To Shake Up Its Staff". The San Francisco Examiner.
  5. ^ "Kofi Annan Assures ADC Leaders About Jenin Mission". American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
  6. ^ Whitson, Sarah Leah (essay; February 24, 2011). "Libya: To Oust a Tyrant". Los Angeles Times.
  7. ^ "Giving Qaddafi the Benefit of the Doubt". The Atlantic.
  8. ^ Bernstein, David (July 15, 2009). "Human Rights Watch Goes to Saudi Arabia; Seeking Saudi Money to Counterbalance "Pro-Israel Pressure Groups". The Wall Street Journal.
  9. ^ Goldberg, Jeffrey (July 15, 2009). "Fundraising Corruption at Human Rights Watch". The Atlantic.
  10. ^ Visit to Saudi Arabia and False Allegations of Human Rights Watch 'Bias' [2]
  11. ^ a b "Human Rights Watch Visit to Saudi Arabia". Human Rights Watch.
  12. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=6RsSg0HOBFQC&pg=PR10&lpg=PR10&dq=sarah+whitson+josh+zinner&source=bl&ots=-Fvd7_jEGH&sig=r67pruShB3OLIxzJ78kea6yUBhg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0PZdUueNLofMkQfh0oHYCA&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=sarah%20whitson%20josh%20zinner&f=false
  13. ^ [3]. The New York Times.
  14. ^ [4]. Foreign Policy.
  15. ^ [5]. Los Angeles Times.
  16. ^ [6]. Foreign Policy in Focus.
  17. ^ [7]. Foreign Policy in Focus.
  18. ^ [8]. Los Angeles Times.
  19. ^ [9]. Foreign Policy.
  20. ^ [10]. CounterPunch.
  21. ^ [11]. Daily Star.

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