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Birgit Schwarz

Birgit Schwarz

Communications Manager, Africa Follow @BirgitMSchwarz

Birgit Schwarz is Communications Manager Africa at Human Rights Watch. Based in Johannesburg, she is responsible for media advocacy and outreach in Southern, Central and West Africa. Before joining HRW in 2011, she held positions as editor, host and reporter with Germany’s biggest public broadcaster WDR, opened and managed the first dpa (German Press Agency) office in South Korea; worked as an investigative reporter and editor for Die Zeit and as Asia editor and foreign correspondent for Der Spiegel, Europe’s major investigative news magazine. A German national, she came to South Africa in 1997 as Der Spiegel’s Africa Correspondent. In 1996, Schwarz was awarded the Emma award for best female journalist. Her reportage about the practice of female genital mutilation in Europe was shortlisted for the Egon-Erwin-Kisch award. Schwarz studied in Germany, Wales and Canada and has an MA in English and French.

Articles Authored

  • November 25, 2019 Interview

    Interview: A Toxic Mix of Abuses on Congo’s Oil Palm Plantations

  • August 7, 2019 Interview

    Interview: Outlawed and Ostracized: Sex Workers in South Africa

  • June 26, 2019 Interview

    Gambia’s Women Break Their Silence

  • April 16, 2019 Interview

    Interview: The Dangers of Opposing Mining in South Africa

  • July 19, 2018 Interview

    Interview: Stoking Fires in Cameroon

  • February 12, 2018 Interview

    Interview: Mauritania’s Taboo Topics

  • November 7, 2017 Witness

    ‘They Said My Character Is Bad’

  • June 27, 2017 Witness

    Witness: Declared Insane for Speaking Out

  • May 22, 2017 Witness

    Witness: Hoping for a Child Who Survives

  • February 14, 2017 Interview

    ‘What Is My Future After This?’

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