Belkis Wille

Belkis Wille 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.