In honor of Open Society Foundations president Aryeh Neier’s legacy, a two-year fellowship program was created in 2003 to provide talented young activists the opportunity to work alongside program experts at the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch on projects aimed at strengthening respect for human rights in the United States. As executive director of the ACLU and then of Human Rights Watch, Neier helped develop both organizations into powerful forces for justice and human rights.
Neier will moderate a discussion with the first five recipients of the fellowship, who will reflect on their fellowship experiences and speak to a range of topics that are of open society concern.
Speakers
- Anjana Malhotra is currently the inaugural Fred T. Korematsu Clinical Teaching Fellow at Seattle University School of Law and recently launched and co-teaches the Law School’s Civil Rights Amicus and Advocacy clinic.
- Mie Lewis is a senior staff attorney with the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, where her work spans the areas of criminal and juvenile justice, education, and privacy and autonomy.
- Alice Farmer is a researcher in the Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, where she specializes in issues faced by migrant children, including children who travel alone, children who face deportation to unsafe locations, and children's access to asylum and social services.
- Sarah Mehta is a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.
- Ian Kysel is the current Aryeh Neier Fellow with Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union where he focuses on the solitary confinement of youth held in jails and prisons in the United States.
- Aryeh Neier is president of the Open Society Foundations.
The Aryeh Neier Fellowships, awarded annually by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, are funded by the Open Society Foundations.