Help promote human rights in the Middle East and North Africa

Donate Today
Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube Envelope
Search
Close this search box.
  • English
  • العربية
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • USA
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • Jordan
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Advocacy
    • The Lobbyist Hall of Shame
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
    • Reforming Foreign Policy
      • Aid Conditionality
      • Human Rights Go to War
      • China
      • Yemen: Toward Sustainable Peace and Democracy
    • US Foreign Policy in MENA
    • Joint Advocacy
    • DAWN Foreign Policy Blueprint
  • Experts
  • Latest
Menu
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • USA
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • Jordan
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Advocacy
    • The Lobbyist Hall of Shame
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
    • Reforming Foreign Policy
      • Aid Conditionality
      • Human Rights Go to War
      • China
      • Yemen: Toward Sustainable Peace and Democracy
    • US Foreign Policy in MENA
    • Joint Advocacy
    • DAWN Foreign Policy Blueprint
  • Experts
  • Latest
Donate

DAWN's 2021 Annual Report

January 12, 2022
in Feature, Press Releases, Uncategorized
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

DAWN celebrates its first year of achievements and growth.

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to share with you our annual report, reflecting our first full year of operation at DAWN.
 
Over 10 years since the Arab Spring uprisings, the abusive governance that sparked them continues to plague the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). But despite what prevailing media and policy narratives may have you believe, the people of the region continue to aspire to democratization and respect for human rights. Two key forces stand in their way: the tyrannies that rule their countries, and the foreign governments that aid and abet their rulers.

My friend Jamal Khashoggi knew this. That's why a few months before his brutal state-sponsored murder, he founded Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)—an organization dedicated to making our vision of a MENA region led by democratic, rights-respecting governments a reality.

Click here to download the full report.

Through rigorous research and analysis, relentless media outreach targeted advocacy with policymakers, and convenings of leading human rights and foreign policy experts, DAWN challenges conventional wisdom about the MENA region and the U.S. role in it, rallies support for policies that uphold rather than hinder human rights, and leads the brainstorming of new solutions to long-standing regional problems. Our online journal, Democracy in Exile, provides a platform through which MENA exile and activist voices can not only speak freely, but be heard by those in power. And our signature research projects document emblematic cases of unjust prosecutions in the region; expose and pursue accountability for the government officials who perpetrate violations; and target the U.S.-based lobbyists paid to keep U.S. support flowing to abusive regional governments. 

DAWN knows that achieving our objectives won't be easy. We are up against the most powerful lobbying interests in the world: the American defense industry and the abusive regional governments themselves. We also face an uphill battle with the U.S. government, which has long provided political and military support to some of the most repressive governments in the region.

 
"The time is now to seize upon the openings for change we have helped create—both in the Middle East and North Africa, and here in the United States—and pave the way for a more just and equitable future for the people of the region. "

- Sarah Leah Whitson

Yet despite the challenges, we are already having an impact. As reflected in this report, in a little over a year we have gone from a little-known nonprofit with two staff, to a prominent, respected organization of over a dozen experts pushing for change in the MENA region. Our rising profile has paved the way for a series of advocacy successes.
 
Examples include pushing a U.S.-based lobbying firm to drop its contract with a Saudi government agency implicated in our founder's murder, persuading the D.C. City Council to designate the street outside the Saudi Embassy as "Khashoggi Way," and spearheading the creation of the Khashoggi Ban Working Group to bar abusers from traveling to the U.S. We were also thrilled to see three of the political prisoners whose plight we documented released from prison. And while we still have a long way to go to realize our mission, I believe that with dedication, creativity, and persistence, our impact will only grow.
 
The time is now to seize upon the openings for change we have helped create—both in the Middle East and North Africa, and here in the United States—and pave the way for a more just and equitable future for the people of the region. I hope you will join us in this effort.
Sarah Leah Whitson
Tags: Annual Report
Previous Post

Assad's Normalization and the Politics of Erasure in Syria

Next Post

How Kais Saied Betrayed Tunisia's Democratic Revolution

Related Posts

DAWN

U.S.: Five Years Since Murder of Khashoggi, Fight for Justice Persists

October 1, 2023 (Washington D.C.): On the fifth anniversary of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, civil society...

DAWN
September 29, 2023
Israeli and U.S. flags seen in Krakow.
On Sunday, August 28, 2022, in Krakow, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
DAWN

U.S.: Suspend Israel's Admission to U.S. Visa Waiver Program Pending Lawsuit Challenge

(Washington D.C., September 27, 2023) – The Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and State should suspend Israel’s entry into...

DAWN
September 27, 2023
UNITED STATES - MAY 26: Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., walks through the Senate subway in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, May 26, 2021. (Photo by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Advocacy

U.S.: Suspend Military Aid to Egypt in Wake of Menendez Indictment for Corruption by Egyptian Government

(Washington, D.C., September 23, 2023): The U.S. government immediately should suspend all military aid to Egypt pending the indictment...

DAWN
September 23, 2023
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, ABU DHABI - JANUARY 17: Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan speaking with an attendee during the 2012  World Future Energy Summit - Day Two held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre on January 17, 2012 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The World Future Energy Summit annual four-day event draws major players in the renewable energy world and provides a showcase for the latest developments in clean energy technologies. (Photo by Sean Blake/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Advocacy

Over 200 Organizations Demand Action on UAE Human Rights Abuses Before COP28 Climate Talks

COP28 should be used to shine the global spotlight on the human rights violations perpetrated against communities inside the...

DAWN
September 13, 2023
Next Post

How Kais Saied Betrayed Tunisia’s Democratic Revolution

U.S.: Five Years Since Murder of Khashoggi, Fight for Justice Persists

September 29, 2023
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - AUGUST 24: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with fellow Brics leaders pose for a family photo with new Bric members at the last day of the Brics summit fellow leaders president, Xi Jinping, China's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's president, Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, Iranian president is Ebrahim Raisi, on the closing day of the BRICS summit at the Sandton Convention Center in the Sandton district of Johannesburg on August 24, 2023, South Africa. The Brics summit, held in South Africa between 22-24 August 2023. Brics is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. New Members are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia. Some of the things are discussed during the summit is if to expand Brics and accept new members like Saudi Arabia and Iran, and a Brics currency. Vladimir Putin wanted to attend the meetings but South African president Cyril Ramaphosa managed to talk him out of it, as he risked being arrested while in in South Africa, as the ICC, International Criminal Court has issued a warrant of arrest for Mr. Putin's on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation  (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)

BRICS Membership Won't Solve Iran's Crisis of Legitimacy at Home

September 28, 2023
Israeli and U.S. flags seen in Krakow.
On Sunday, August 28, 2022, in Krakow, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

U.S.: Suspend Israel's Admission to U.S. Visa Waiver Program Pending Lawsuit Challenge

September 27, 2023

Categories

  • Advocacy
  • Aid Conditionality
  • Anonymous Interviews
  • Anonymous Interviews Egypt
  • Anonymous Interviews Saudi Arabia
  • Anonymous Interviews UAE
  • Cases
  • Cases Egypt
  • Cases Saudi Arabia
  • Cases UAE
  • China's Uyghur Repression
  • Countries
  • Culprits
  • Culprits Egypt
  • Culprits Israel
  • Culprits Saudi Arabia
  • Culprits UAE
  • DAWN
  • DAWN Foreign Policy Blueprint
  • Dawn's Advocacy
  • Democracy In Exile
  • Editor's Pick
  • Egypt
  • Feature
  • Fellows
  • Foreign Policy
  • Human Rights
  • Human Rights Go to War
  • International Actors
  • Israel-Palestine
  • Joint Letters
  • Jordan
  • Lobbyists
  • Lobbyists Israel Palestine
  • Palestine
  • Political prisoners
  • Press Release Egypt
  • Press Release Israel-Palestine
  • Press Release Jordan
  • Press Release Saudi Arabia
  • Press Release UAE
  • Press Releases
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Uncategorized
  • United Nations
  • US – Egypt
  • US – Saudi Arabia
  • US – UAE
  • USA
  • Yemen Conference

SUPPORT OUR MISSION

Donate Today

About Us

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) is a nonprofit organization that promotes democracy, the rule of law, and human rights for all of the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Support Us

Donate Now

Newsletter

Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube

© DAWN All rights reserved. | Website Design by KRS Creative.

DONATE TODAY