Handa Center Annual Public Lecture on Human Rights with Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski

Annual Public Lecture on Human Rights

Tom Malinowski, the U.S. government’s lead human rights official, will deliver remarks about the profound importance and enduring challenges of advancing democratic ideals and respect for human rights, and why the United States plays an essential role in protecting and promoting these freedoms.  

Tom Malinowski currently serves as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, a position he has held since April 2014. Previously, from 2001, he was Washington Director for Human Rights Watch, one of the world’s leading independent international organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. From 1998 to 2001, he served as Senior Director on the National Security Council at the White House, where he oversaw the drafting of President Clinton’s foreign policy speeches and strategic communications efforts around the world. From 1994 to 1998 he was a speechwriter for Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, and member of the Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State. 

Earlier in his career, Mr. Malinowski worked as a research assistant for the Ford Foundation in 1993, and for the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Austria, in 1992. He began his career as a Special Assistant for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1988. Mr. Malinowski received a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.Phil. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.