Aryeh Neier

Since 1993, Aryeh Neier has served as President of the Soros Foundation and of the Open Society Institute. For the previous 12 years, he was executive director of Human Rights Watch and, before that, served for 15 years with the American Civil Liberties Union, including eight years as national director. Neier played a leading role in the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Yugoslavia and conducted investigations of human rights abuses in more than 40 countries. Neier is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, and has published in periodicals such as the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, and Foreign Policy. For a dozen years he wrote a column on human rights for The Nation. He has contributed more than 300 op-ed articles in newspapers including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the International Herald Tribune. Author of seven books, including his most recent, The International Human Rights Movement: A History (2012), Neier has also contributed chapters to more than 20 books.He has lectured at many leading universities in the United States and worldwide. He is the recipient of seven honorary degrees and numerous awards from such organizations as the American Bar Association, the Swedish Bar Association, the International Bar Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists.