Agnès Callamard

Early life and education A native of Pierrelatte, France,

Career

Callamard has conducted human-rights investigations in a number of countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. She has published in the field of human rights, women's rights, refugee movements and accountability. Callamard has worked extensively in the field of international refugee movements, including work with the Center for Refugee Studies in Toronto.

In May 2017, Callamard attended a conference in the Philippines, which was followed by her Wikipedia page being vandalized. Callamard stated that the visit was not in an official capacity.

Amnesty International From 1998 to 2001, Callamard was Chef de Cabinet for the Secretary General of Amnesty International and the organisation's Research Policy Coordinator.

In January 2013, Callamard tweeted that Israel was responsible for the death of Yasser Arafat. In April 2021, Amnesty International released a statement that the tweet was “written in haste and is incorrect," and did not reflect of the position of Amnesty or Callamard. Jewish News wrote "he tweet was still available on Callamard's account".

In October 2004, Callamard took the position of Executive Director of Article 19, an international human-rights organization.

In November 2013, Callamard was appointed Director of Columbia University's Global Freedom of Expression initiative. In 2019 she led the human rights inquiry into the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Her findings were presented to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2019. After the report was published, she said that a senior Saudi official twice threatened to have her killed if she was not reined in by the UN.

She concluded that the drone strike on Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was unlawful as part of advance version of her report on "Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions" for the 44th session of the Human Rights Council. Her report stated that the action of the United States violated international law because the US had not provided any evidence that Soleimani was planning an imminent attack against US interests, which would have warranted and justified immediate action.

Amnesty International She returned to Amnesty International after twenty years, as Secretary General, in March 2021. She leads the organization's human-rights work and is its chief spokesperson. She is responsible for providing overall leadership of the International Secretariat, including setting the strategic direction for the organisation and managing relations with Amnesty International's national entities.

Works and publications