Amanda Klasing

Amanda Klasing is the acting co-director of the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch. Her work focuses on sexual and domestic violence, reproductive rights and women's health, indigenous rights, and economic and social rights. She is a specialist in the rights to water and sanitation.

Amanda has carried out research and advocacy on a number of human rights issues including: the First Nations water crisis in Canada; the rights of women and girls in affected by Zika in Brazil and in Haiti after the earthquake; sexual violence and other forms of violence against women displaced by conflict in Colombia; accountability for victims of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti; the relationship between women’s and girls’ human rights and access to good menstrual hygiene management; and the rights to water and sanitation in schools. Amanda has also researched and analyzed the women’s rights impacts of the 2016 US Election, including the restrictions on women's reproductive health and rights in the US and abroad, threats to protections for survivors of gender-based violence and efforts to decrease women's access to health care. 

Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Amanda’s work included indigenous rights and development in Mexico, indigenous women’s role in transitional justice in Peru, and Dalit rights in India. She has also worked more broadly on immigrant rights in the United States and economic, social, and cultural rights, with a focus on the rights to water and food in Haiti.

Amanda published in peer-reviewed journals on the right to water and on human rights and humanitarian response and is a contributing author of an academic book on health and human rights. She has spoken before United Nations human rights bodies. Her op-eds have run in Jurist, CNN, The Globe and Mail, the Huffington Post and other outlets. She has made radio and TV appearances on outlets including the BBC, Voice of America, CCTV, and CNN Spanish. She is a founding member of the Human Rights Methodology Lab.

Amanda holds a master’s degree in social sciences from the University of Chicago, and a law degree from New York University, where she received the Vanderbilt Medal for outstanding contributions to the Law School.