FAKIH
Lama
Director, Crisis and Conflict Division at Human Rights Watch
Organization: Human Rights Watch
Profession: Director
Biography
Lama Fakih is Human Rights Watch’s Crisis and Conflict director and the director of the Beirut office.
Career
Prior to her current role, Fakih was Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division from September 2016-September 2019. She was a Senior Crisis Advisor in Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Program and was Human Rights Watch’s Syria and Lebanon researcher from 2011-2015. Previously, she worked as the Gender, Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Fellow at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at the New York University School of Law. In 2008-2009 she was the Center Fellow at CHRGJ, where she worked on a range of human rights issues including corporate accountability and human rights and counter-terrorism. Additionally, Fakih was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research on the implementation of Islamic law in the Egyptian National Courts.
Education
Fakih holds a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a law degree from New York University, where she was awarded the Ann Petluck Poses Memorial Prize for her work in the university’s International Human Rights Clinic. She speaks English and Arabic.