Sarah Leah Whitson

Sarah Leah Whitson is a lawyer and author focused on human rights and U.S. foreign policy. She served as executive director of DAWN from 2020 to 2026 and as executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division from 2004 to 2020. She serves on several nonprofit boards, including the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, the Armenian Bar Association and the International Observatory for Democracy in Armenia, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Whitson has led advocacy and investigative missions across the MENA region and has published widely in major international media. Her book with Michael Omer-Man, From Apartheid to Democracy: A Blueprint for Peace in Israel-Palestine, was published in 2025 by University of California Press. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard Law School and is fluent in English, Arabic and Armenian.