Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division, oversees the work of the division in 19 countries, with staff located in 10 countries. She has led dozens of advocacy and investigative missions throughout the region, focusing on issues of armed conflict, accountability, legal reform, migrant workers, and political rights.
She has published widely on human rights issues in the Middle East in international and regional media, including The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, and CNN. She appears regularly on Al-Jazeera, BBC, NPR, and CNN.
Before joining Human Rights Watch, Whitson worked in New York for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School. Whitson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She speaks Armenian and Arabic.
1) What is your current position?
I am the Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division at Human Rights Watch.
2) What are your proudest achievements?
My proudest achievement, and also my good fortune, is to work in a job that so closely aligns with my values and interests, and allows me to commit all of my time and passion for the advancement of human rights in a region I care deeply about: the Middle East and North Africa. Through the efforts of my organization, we have been able to secure the release of political prisoners, activists, journalists and writers; advance legal reforms and protections for women and migrant workers; spearhead global treaties to ban landmines and cluster munitions; and daily expose the reality of abuses by governments and armed groups alike.
On a family level, I’m very proud of my three children, Lena, Tobias and Julian, who so far seem to have absorbed the commitment to social justice, compassion, and acquiring knowledge of which I’ve tried to teach them the value. I’m proud to have succeeded in supporting my family with a comfortable home and security – something I didn’t have as a child myself.
3) What inspires you?
I’m inspired by the fearless and relentless activists with whom I work, throughout the Middle East. They are on the front lines of the struggle for human rights, and are paying with their own lives and liberty to defend the rights of others. Most others would have given up, or caved in to oppression in exchange for personal security and comfort; they persist because of their belief that they have a duty to fight for justice and freedom.
I’m also inspired by survivors who brave the odds to endure and thrive. My mother’s family survived the Armenian Genocide; my husband’s family survived the Holocaust. I tell my children every day: you are here today only because you come from a family of survivors; live up to your DNA! And I’m tremendously grateful to the communities who accepted my family, and hundreds of thousands of other Armenians, as refugees throughout the Middle East. It has made me deeply conscious both of the need to struggle against injustice and demonstrate compassion to those in need.
4) What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?
I’m not sure I’ve ever really faced any huge obstacles; I’ve been quite lucky to work in great organizations with talented people!
5) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
My colleagues at Human Rights Watch have had a profound influence on my career: I’ve learned so much from them, not only in terms of substantive knowledge and expertise, but also excellence and smarts in their dogged pursuit of justice. I’ve learned also about the importance of staying true to our values not just outside the organization, but inside as well, in terms of how we manage and interact with each other.
6) What is the best aspect about your current role?
The best aspect of my current role is the opportunity to have a platform from which I can advocate for human rights-respecting, principled positions, untethered by partisan politics. I consider it my responsibility to ensure that the truth – based on the facts that we document about rights violations – makes it into the mainstream media and the desks of policy-makers, sometimes if only to establish that we all know what’s really happening and there’s no hiding from it. Another great aspect of my role is the opportunity to work with some of the smartest, most committed, principled and honourable people in world – both inside and outside my organization!
7) And the worst?
The worst aspect of my current role is the frustration that comes with knowing there are so many battles we’re not winning, and that the suffering and repression of humanity is increasing in so many parts of the world, despite our best efforts. As part of a non-profit organization that relies on support from individuals and foundations (not governments!), I also face serious financial limitations that make it very hard for us to hire as many staff as we need to do our job. It’s a constant stress.
8) What are your long term goals?
My longest term goal is to see that my efforts have left the planet an incrementally better place than I found it, even if only in the narrow confines of my work and personal orbit. At some level, I have to believe that merely working to record and preserve the truth is a contribution to humanity, even if I can’t actually change things for the better… From a career point of view, I’d love the opportunity to expand my professional horizon to learn about issues and parts of the world that are not currently my focus. And from a personal point of view, my goal is to see my children established in healthy families and as contributing members of society.
9) If you were the President of USA, what one aspect would you change?
If I were president of the US, I would revamp American policy to end military support for seriously abusive governments; ensure equality for women, including the unfettered right to reproductive freedom; and prioritize campaign finance reform, beginning with a restriction on corporate funding of politicians.
10) If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?
My focus would be more tactical on survival, rather than purely intellectual, so to that end, I’d hope to have a brilliant strategist and warrior on the island with me – perhaps Alexander the Great – who might also figure a way off the island? It would be ideal if he could also sing and play the guitar…
