
Amanda Klasing
Amanda Klasing is a senior researcher in 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.
Videos
From HRW
Articles Authored
- Commentary
Human Right to Water at Risk in First Nations Communities
Published in The Globe and Mail - Dispatches
Dispatches: Chile’s Welcome Move on Abortion
Pages
Other Writing
Connect On Twitter
Reports Authored
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Neglected and Unprotected
The Impact of the Zika Outbreak on Women and Girls in Northeastern Brazil
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“Going to the Toilet When You Want”
Sanitation as a Human Right
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Make it Safe
Canada’s Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis
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Rape Victims as Criminals
Illegal Abortion after Rape in Ecuador
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Rights Out of Reach
Obstacles to Health, Justice, and Protection for Displaced Victims of Gender-Based Violence in Colombia
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“Nobody Remembers Us”
Failure to Protect Women’s and Girls’ Right to Health and Security in Post-Earthquake Haiti
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Haiti’s Rendezvous with History
The Case of Jean-Claude Duvalier