<span class="vcard">Belkis Wille</span>

Belkis Wille

Guest Author

Belkis Wille (@belkiswille) is an associate director in the Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division at Human Rights Watch. Since 2022, she has been documenting laws of war violations in Gaza, Israel, Sudan, and Ukraine. Belkis has also spearheaded the organization’s work investigating the harms stemming from personal data collection, including biometrics, in humanitarian contexts. This work has included investigations in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Jordan, and Kenya. She has also led the organization’s work on the preservation of content taken down by social media platforms that is vital to war crimes investigations.

Belkis was previously Human Rights Watch’s senior Iraq researcher for three-and-a half years, and its Kuwait, Qatar, and Yemen researcher, based in Sanaa, for over three years.

Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Belkis worked with the World Organisation Against Torture in Libya. She has an LLM in human rights and humanitarian law from the University of Essex, a graduate diploma in law from City University London, and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. Belkis speaks English, German, French, and Arabic. She is also on LinkedIn.

Articles by this author:

The photo shows one side of a makeshift straw hut on the left, with a crowded line of people standing on the dirt ground. The line extends to the right, and the people wear a mix of traditional flowing robes or western-style clothing in a multitude of colors and flip-flop sandals. The donkey in the foreground clearly also is emaciated.
Boys lay on top of one another at an overcrowded Juveniles’ cell at Tal Kayf prison in April 2019.
A crowded prison cell is filled with men suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh on October 26, 2019. They sit and lay side by side on thin cots on the floor.
Just Security
Just Security
Just Security

DON'T MISS A THING. Stay up to date with Just Security curated newsletters: