(New York) – Human Rights Watch announced today the appointment of Mausi Segun as executive director of the Africa division, effective July 1, 2017.
Segun has worked at Human Rights Watch since 2013 as the senior researcher for Nigeria. During that time, she conducted many field investigations and wrote numerous reports and articles. The topics include violence in north-central Nigeria, killings by state security forces, muzzling of the news media, Boko Haram's abduction of girls and women, and abuses by both sides in the Boko Haram conflict.
Segun has also been a global representative for Human Rights Watch, presenting, analyzing, and advocating for compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law. She has written opinion articles for the New York Times, CNN, Al Jazeera, and other media outlets on conflict-related abuses, religious freedom, women’s and children’s rights, and freedom of expression, among other topics. Prior to Human Rights Watch, Segun worked with the Nigerian government in several capacities, most recently as assistant director and zonal coordinator at the National Human Rights Commission.
“Mausi Segun brings a rich and varied background to the position of Africa division executive director,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Mausi’s expertise and understanding of the complexity of human rights issues in Africa comes at a time of considerable turmoil on the continent.”
The Africa division at Human Rights Watch works to advance human rights throughout the African sub-region and carries out work that includes investigations, reporting, advocacy, and media outreach. The division’s 18 staff members cover over 30 countries on a wide range of human rights abuses, most recently conflict related-abuses in the Sahel, the recruitment and use of child soldiers in South Sudan, police killings and enforced disappearances in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the impact of climate change on the livelihoods of indigenous people in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Human Rights Watch is a nongovernmental organization, established in 1978, that monitors, reports, and advocates on human rights issues in more than 90 countries around the world.
