Profile of Invited Expert “Althaibani”
Profile
- Full Name
- Raja Althaibani
- Position
- Senior Program Manager, the Middle East and North Africa
- Organization
- WITNESS
- URL
- https://www.witness.org/portfolio_page/raja-althaibani/
- Biography
Raja Althaibani is the Senior Program Manager for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at WITNESS. In close coordination with grassroots organizations and other members of civil society, Althaibani works to ensure that video is used to safely, ethically and effectively advance human rights advocacy and accountability in the region, and to ensure innovative learning is shared and built upon.
With over 10 years of experience in the region, Althaibani is most recognized for her broad and in-depth understanding of human rights documentation, technology, and the MENA region. Since her start with WITNESS in 2011, she has developed key strategies and programs supporting more ethical, safe and effective storytelling and documentation of human rights violations in places such as Egypt, Palestine and the Western Sahara. She led a three-year crisis response program in Syria where she worked with activists, documenters, lawyers and archivists working to collect, document, preserve and share evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Althaibani is currently working to share and build on these learnings in other conflict areas such as Yemen.
Prior to joining WITNESS, Althaibani was in Yemen covering the revolution as a citizen journalist, media stringer and freelance photographer. In 2006, she volunteered at a Yemeni human rights organization that advocated on behalf of Guantanamo detainees. Raja Althaibani is an AmeriCorps alumna who served one year in the largest Arab American community in New York state providing bilingual culturally sensitive social service and immigration support to newly arrived Arab immigrants.
- Selected Citations to Published Materials
- New Series Launch: Perpetrator Video in the Middle East and North Africa, WITNESS Media Lab (Sep. 2018), available online. ,
History
- Member for
- 4 years 27 weeks
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