Nisha Varia

Nisha Varia is an experienced human rights investigator, author, advocate, and trainer who has worked in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Varia develops and leads trainings on human rights research and advocacy methodologies, including techniques for interviewing survivors of trauma and gender-based violence.

Varia was advocacy director of Human Rights Watch's women's rights division between 2015 and 2022 and a researcher between 2003 and 2014. At Human Rights Watch she conducted extensive research and advocacy to promote migrant domestic workers’ rights across Asia and the Middle East. She also reported on gender-based violence in conflict and refugee settings and abuses related to coal mining operations. Her advocacy contributed to the adoption and promotion of three international labor treaties on domestic workers’ rights, forced labor, and violence and harassment at work.

Varia taught a postgraduate seminar on human rights research and advocacy at the New School between 2012 and 2018. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Varia worked at the International Center for Research on Women and was a Fulbright scholar to India. Varia received a master's degree in economic and political development from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a bachelor's degree in economics and anthropology from Stanford University.

Varia is able to speak on a wide variety of human rights issues including gender discrimination and violence, women’s rights, labor, migration, corporate accountability, and ethics in human rights research and methods. She has been interviewed for TV (BBC World News, CNN International, Al-Jazeera), radio (BBC World Service, National Public Radio), and print (New York Times, Financial Times). She has also published op-eds in Al Jazeera, the Inter Press Service, the Mail and Guardian, and Women’s eNews. Follow Varia on Twitter @Nisha_Varia.