Rothna Begum

Rothna Begum (@Rothna_Begum) is a senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. She focuses on discrimination and violence against women and girls in the Middle East and North Africa region, including leading the research and advocacy on the abuse and exploitation of migrant domestic workers, domestic violence against women and girls, child marriage, sexual violence in conflict, discriminatory family laws, and male guardianship policies. She has conducted research and advocacy in countries including Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Rothna also led the advocacy for Human Rights Watch on a new global International Labour Organization (ILO) treaty relating to violence and harassment at work, which was adopted in June 2019. Rothna is also, in her individual capacity, a member of the ILO Regional Office for Arab States’ Migration Advisory Group.

Rothna previously worked for Amnesty International (2008-2013) researching and campaigning against a wide range of human rights violations in the Gulf states. Rothna holds a LLB in Law and a LLM in Legal Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She qualified in subjects such as international human rights law, public international law and Islamic law.