- Sarah Leah Whitson
-
Sarah Leah Whitson Alma mater • University of California, Berkeley (Bachelor of Arts, 1988)
• Harvard Law School (Juris Doctor, 1991)Occupation Human-rights activist Employer Human Rights Watch Sarah Leah Whitson is an American human rights activist and director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.
Contents
Early life and education
Whitson was reared by a mother who was born in the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. She 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 led landmark investigations of human rights conditions in Libya and Saudi Arabia and numerous advocacy missions in the region, and overseen over twenty research missions and edited the resulting reports. She has published articles on the Middle East in international and regional publications. [9] 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.[4][5] She has also carried out human-rights work for the Center for Economic and Social Rights, 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 and Gaddafi began murdering his own citizens, 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, takes Whitson to task for her having had "something of a soft spot" for Qaddafi and his son, Seif Islam, and previously reporting that changes were taking 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 the allegations that HRW had "compromised its neutrality" by meeting with Saudi donors were based on "misleading assumptions and wrong facts". 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]
Recent publications
- "Israel's Settlements Are on Shaky Ground". Los Angeles Times. June 28, 2009.
- "A Record That Can't Be Ignored". The Huffington Post. June 1, 2009.[12]
- "Tripoli Spring". Foreign Policy. May 2009.[13]
- "Hezbollah Needs to Answer". Al-Sharq al-Awsat. October 4, 2006.[14]
- "Hezbollah's Rockets and Civilian Casualties". CounterPunch. September 22, 2006.[15]
- "It's Time to Tell Mubarak, 'Enough!'". Daily Star. May 20, 2006.[16]
- "Getting an Opinion on the Wall". Daily Star. July 9, 2004.[17]
In June 2009, Whitson wrote an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times concerning Israeli settlements in which she argued that their removal is mandated by international law and that the Palestinians should be compensated for their losses.[18]
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Minority Report Human Rights Watch Fights a Civil War over Israel". The New Republic. April 27, 2010.
- ^ a b [1]. Harvard Arab Alumni Associastion.
- ^ HRW website
- ^ Bernstein, David (November 5, 2009). "Human Rights Watch Needs To Shake Up Its Staff". The San Francisco Examiner.
- ^ "Kofi Annan Assures ADC Leaders About Jenin Mission". American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
- ^ Whitson, Sarah Leah (essay; February 24, 2011). "Libya: To Oust a Tyrant". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Giving Qaddafi the Benefit of the Doubt". The Atlantic.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Goldberg, Jeffrey (July 15, 2009). "Fundraising Corruption at Human Rights Watch". The Atlantic.
- ^ Visit to Saudi Arabia and False Allegations of Human Rights Watch 'Bias' [2]
- ^ a b "Human Rights Watch Visit to Saudi Arabia". Human Rights Watch. http://www.hrw.org/en/node/84512.
- ^ [3]. The Huffington Post.
- ^ [4]. Foreign Policy.
- ^ [5]. Al-Sharq al-Awsat (via Human Rights Watch).
- ^ [6]. CounterPunch.
- ^ [7]. Daily Star.
- ^ [8]. Daily Star.
- ^ Whitson, Sarah Leah (June 28, 2009). "Israel's Settlements Are on Shaky Ground". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/28/opinion/oe-whitson28. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
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