Neil Hicks

From the Fikra Forum profile:
 * Neil Hicks advises Human Rights First on a wide variety of international human rights issues, and serves as a resource to the organization in identifying opportunities to advance human rights around the world. Neil also writes and conducts advocacy on issues relating to human rights promotion in the Muslim world, and on the impact of counterterrorism measures on human rights. From 2002 to 2007, Neil was the director of the Human Rights Defenders Program. Before joining Human Rights First, Neil was a researcher for the Middle East Department of Amnesty International in London, where he worked between 1985 and 1991. He has also served as human rights project officer of Birzeit University in the West Bank. In 2000 to 2001, Neil took a year-long sabbatical from Human Rights First; he spent his leave as a Senior Fellow in the Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program of the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. Neil is the author of many reports and scholarly articles, most recently, "The Impact of Counter Terror on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights: A Global Perspective, in Richard Wilson" (ed.) Human Rights in an Age of Terrorism; Cambridge University Press, 2005. Neil holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from St. Cuthbert’s Society, University of Durham (1983) and a certificate from the Arabic Language Unit of the American University in Cairo (1982). Neil has published articles on human rights in such publications as the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and Al-Ahram Weekly.

Affiliations

 * Amnesty International – researcher in Middle East section (1985 - 1991)
 * Fikra Forum – contributor
 * Human Rights First – advisor (since 1991)
 * United States Institute of Peace – Senior Fellow in the Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program (2000-2001)