Jamil Dakwar

Jamil Dakwar is the Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s Human Rights Program. He leads a team of lawyers and researchers in advising ACLU programs on international human rights law. Dakwar also oversees the ACLU’s human rights documentation, advocacy, and litigation before international bodies, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Prior to joining the ACLU, he worked at Human Rights Watch, where he conducted research, engaged in advocacy, and published reports on issues of torture and detention in Egypt, Morocco, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territory. Before moving to the United States, Dakwar was a senior attorney with Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, where he filed and argued human rights cases before Israeli courts and advocated before international fora. In 2020, Dakwar was appointed as a member of the New York State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Dakwar is a graduate of Tel Aviv University and New York University School of Law and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY), Bard College, and Hunter College. He is trilingual and speaks Arabic (mother tongue), English, and Hebrew.