Connections Episode 33

The Struggle for Human Rights in the Middle East

Mouin Rabbani Interviews Sarah Leah Whitman

Wednesday 13 April 2022
2:00 PM EST | 20:00 CET | 21:00 Jerusalem

Join us on Wednesday, 13 April for a discussion about human rights in the Middle East between Jadaliyya co-editor Mouin Rabbani and Sarah Leah Whitson. This episode of Connections will examine the current state of human rights in the Middle East, the struggles to attain individual and collective rights in the region, and efforts to hold violators to account.

Connections offers timely and informative interviews on current events and broader policy questions, as well as themes relevant to knowledge production. It combines journalism, analysis, and scholarship.

Guest

Sarah Leah Whitson is the Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). Previously, she from 2004-2020 served as Executive Eirector of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division.Whitson has led dozens of advocacy and investigative missions throughout the region, focusing on issues of armed conflict, accountability, legal reform, migrant workers, and human rights. She has published widely on human rights and foreign policy in the Middle East in international and regional media, including The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post,Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, and CNN. She appears regularly on Al-Jazeera, BBC, NPR, MSNBC, and CNN. Previously, Whitson worked in New York for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School. Whitson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and sits on the boards of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, Artistic Freedom Initiative, Freedom Forward, ALQST for Human Rights, and the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights.

Host

Mouin Rabbani has published and commented widely on Palestinian affairs, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He was previously Senior Analyst Middle East and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group, and head of political affairs with the Office of the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria. He is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine.