Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, is a general expert on Middle East and North Africa issues. She has led landmark investigations of human rights conditions in Libya and Saudi Arabia and numerous advocacy missions in the region, and overseen over 20 research missions and edited the resulting reports. She has published articles on the Middle East in international and regional publications. Prior to her work at Human Rights Watch, she conducted several human rights missions in region, including missions examining the impact of war and sanctions on the Iraqi civilian population, elections in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, and human rights issues in southern Lebanon. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Whitson worked as an attorney in New York for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School.

Articles

"Israel's settlements are on shaky ground," Los Angeles Times, June 28, 2009

"A Record That Can't Be Ignored," The Huffington Post, June 1, 2009

 "Tripoli Spring," Foreign Policy, May 2009

"Talking To: Sarah Leah Whitson from Human Rights Watch'" Now Lebanon, May 14, 2009

 "Hezbollah Needs to Answer," Al-Sharq al-Awsat, October 4, 2006

 "Hezbollah's Rockets and Civilian Casualties," Counterpunch, September 22, 2006

"It's Time to Tell Mubarak, ‘Enough!'" Daily Star, May 20, 2006

 "Getting an Opinion on the Wall," Daily Star, July 9, 2004