Since April 2021, Paul O’Brien has been the Executive Director at Amnesty International USA, a human rights organization of 240,000 members and 125 staff. Over his career he has done human rights research and advocacy in more than 50 countries, including most recently Mexico, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. He lived for 10 years in Africa working for local and international organizations, and for 5 years in Afghanistan.
Before Amnesty, Paul co-led Oxfam’s worldwide influencing network’s advocacy efforts during the Covid pandemic and led Oxfam America’s advocacy with the US government and corporations. He has been an advisor to the President of Afghanistan, the Africa Policy Advisor for CARE, and an organizer in Nairobi’s informal urban settlements. He was the President of the Echoing Green Foundation and a litigator in New York for Cravath, Swaine and Moore. He has a JD from Harvard Law School.
Before joining Amnesty, he published “Power Switch” How We Can Reverse Extreme Inequality.”
