Judith Abitan is an international human rights advocate and the executive director of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. She has been at the forefront of some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time, immersed in the pursuit of justice internationally, the promotion and protection of human rights, and the betterment of the human condition. She has made representations to international bodies and governments in relation to the rescue and resettlement of some of the most vulnerable and at-risk populations, political prisoner cases, and asylum seeker applications.
Judith’s advocacy work has encompassed, inter alia, the case and cause of Biram Dah Abeid, leader of the international anti-slavery movement and president of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement in Mauritania; Dawit Isaak, dual Eritrean-Swedish citizen known to be, with his colleagues, the longest detained journalists in the world; and a series of Burundian journalists and human rights defenders convicted on trumped-up charges for criticizing the government. Judith has also written for major publications including the National Post, the Globe and Mail, the Times of Israel, the Washington Post, and Time.
Judith holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University; a Bachelor of Civil Law from the Université de Montréal; a Master of Laws from Fordham University School of Law (graduate fellow editor of the Fordham International Law Journal); and a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School (John F. Kennedy fellow). She is also a 2024-2025 practitioner fellow of Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs’ Scholars Program.
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