Sarah Leah Whitson - Executive Director, DAWN - Democracy for the Arab World Now
In this episode, Jonathan speaks with Sarah Leah Whitson an American human rights lawyer and advocate with a passion for advancing democracy and human rights in the Middle East. Sarah Leah has worked and volunteered for various civil society organisations, including the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Center for Economic and Social Rights and for Human Rights Watch.
For over a decade and a half, Sarah Leah was in the leadership of Human Rights Watch - where she served as executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. Sarah Leah has now taken up the role of executive director at DAWN- Democracy for the Arab World Now – an organisation advocating for democracy and human rights in the Arab world that was originally conceived by Jamal Khashoggi - the murdered Saudi journalist and rights activist. Prior to her human rights work, Sarah-Leah worked for Goldman Sachs as an investment banker and as lawyer for a prominent New York law firm. Sarah-Leah is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law.
Useful links:
DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now) - https://dawnmena.org/
Human Rights Watch - https://www.hrw.org/
Center for Economic and Social Rights - https://www.cesr.org/
MADRE - https://www.madre.org/