Bio
Jamil Dakwar () is the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Human Rights Program (HRP) which is dedicated to holding the U.S. government accountable to its international human rights obligations and commitments. He leads a team of lawyers and advocates who use a human rights framework to complement existing ACLU legal and legislative advocacy, primarily focusing on promoting racial and economic justice and ending mass incarceration, police violence, and extreme sentencing. HRP conducts human rights research, documentation, and public education, as well as engages in litigation and advocacy before U.S. courts and international human rights bodies.
Mr. Dakwar conducts advocacy before the U.S. government on human rights issues, with a particular focus on the domestic implementation of U.S. human rights obligations. His expertise frequently appears in domestic and international media, including the , , , , , , and . He serves as the ACLU’s main representative to the United Nations and leads the ACLU’s international advocacy before other regional and international bodies, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Mr. Dakwar was one of ACLU’s first observers to the military commission system at Guantanamo Bay in 2004. In 2020, he was appointed as a member of the New York State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Prior to joining the ACLU in 2004, Jamil worked at Human Rights Watch, where he conducted research, advocated, and published reports on issues of torture and detention in Egypt, Morocco, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territory. Before coming to the United States, he was a senior attorney with Adalah, a leading human rights group in Israel, where he filed and argued human rights cases before Israeli courts and advocated before international forums. He is a graduate of Tel Aviv University and NYU School of Law. He is adjunct professor at New York University and Hunter College. He is trilingual and speaks Arabic (mother tongue), English, and Hebrew.
Featured work
Jun 2, 2017
Why Did a Private Security Contractor Treat Standing Rock Protesters Like ‘Jihadists’?
Mar 21, 2017
In an Unprecedented No-Show, the U.S. Pulls Out of Planned Human Rights Hearing
Feb 2, 2017
Trump's Muslim Ban Flies in the Face of International Law and Treaties the US Has Ratified
Jan 26, 2017
Defiant as Ever, Water Protectors Vow to Continue the Fight Against the Dakota ‘Black Snake’ Pipeline
Dec 22, 2016
After 10-year Legal Battle, a Victory for Undocumented Workers Injured on the Job
Nov 22, 2016
Police at Standing Rock Are Using Life-Threatening Crowd-Control Weapons to Crack Down on Water Protectors
Nov 7, 2016
U.N. Investigator Talks About the Future of Solitary and the Death Penalty
Nov 4, 2016
A Torture Victim Turned Human Rights Champion Ends His U.N. Run Fighting for Justice
Jun 17, 2016
New CIA Torture Documents Confirm Chilling Details of Khaled El-Masri’s 'Kafka-esque' Ordeal
Mar 2, 2016
President Obama, When It Comes to Human Rights, We Need More Action, Not Words