Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno
Maria is acting deputy Program director and senior legal advisor at Human Rights Watch.
From 2017 to 2020 Maria served as the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, the leading US-based organization fighting to end the global war on drugs, where she played a key role in supporting the campaign that resulted in the state of Oregon’s groundbreaking decriminalization of all drugs for personal use.
Previously, Maria held several positions at Human Rights Watch. As co-director of its US Program, she guided the organization’s work on US national security and criminal justice policy. As deputy Washington director, she conducted DC advocacy on a broad range of US foreign policy issues, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa during the 2011 Arab uprisings and in South Asia. Earlier, as senior Americas researcher, Maria covered Colombia's internal armed conflict and worked on the extradition and trial of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori.
Maria is the author of the narrative non-fiction book "There Are No Dead Here: A Story of Murder and Denial in Colombia" (Bold Type Books, Feb. 2018), which won Duke University's 2018 Juan E. Méndez Human Rights Book Award; a Spanish translation was published by Planeta Colombia. She clerked on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; conducted sovereign litigation as an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton; and holds a law degree, magna cum laude, from New York University School of Law. A Peruvian-American, Maria grew up in Lima, Peru, during the country’s internal war with Shining Path and the Fujimori presidency.
Photo © El Tiempo
Articles Authored
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November 11, 2016
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September 26, 2016
Winning the War on Drugs by Ending It
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September 17, 2015
Winding Down the War on Drugs: Reevaluating Global Drug Policy
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April 20, 2015
US laws on weed are no joke
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January 7, 2015
When it comes to torture, America is nothing special
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December 10, 2014
Time for Criminal Investigations
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December 4, 2014
Dispatches: Beyond Bodycams — What to Do After Garner and Brown
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November 25, 2014
Dispatches: Wake up US, Ferguson Calling
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November 12, 2014
Dispatches: Good News on US Drug Policy – Within the US and Globally
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October 3, 2014
Dispatches: A Win for US Farmworkers Against Sexual Assault
Reports Authored
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Maiming the People
Guerrilla Use of Antipersonnel Landmines and other Indiscriminate Weapons in Colombia
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