Radhya Al-Mutawakel

Radhya Almutawakel is a leading Yemeni human rights defender. She is the chairperson and cofounder of Mwatana Organization for Human Rights.

She has been working in the human rights field since 2004, covering different topics including war crimes, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and freedom of the press. She has assisted international organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Open Society Foundations in documenting civilian casualties in Yemen.

Almutawakel has been invited to present her work at numerous international events and forums, including at a hearing of the European Parliament, and she briefed the UN Security Council on May 30, 2017, on the war in Yemen.

Almutawakel was awarded the “Global Advocate Award” from the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute in April 2017 and took part in the school's “Practitioner-In-Residence” program the same year.

She was chosen by a group of regional Human Rights NGOs to be the Defender of Human Rights and Freedom of Speech for October 2017 as part of the campaign “Supporting Human Rights Defenders and Freedom of Expression.”

She also holds a bachelor's degree in mass communication and two high diplomas in gender studies and political science from Sanaa University.

Mwatana is an independent Yemeni organization aiming to defend and protect human rights, depending on investigative research methodology to issue statements, reports, and documentary films. Mwatana also works on advocacy, human rights awareness, training, and providing legal support to the victims of arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances.

On August 2, 2018, Human Rights First announced that Mwatana was awarded the 2018 Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty. In the same year, the 10th International Hrant Dink Award was granted to Mwatana for informing the world about the status of human rights in Yemen and for struggling against the rights violations in the country.