Matthew Smith

  • Fortify Rights

  • 2014 Global Fellow

Matthew Smith
  • Fortify Rights

  • 2014 Global Fellow

bold idea

Strengthen the human rights movement by providing technical support to human rights defenders while also documenting human rights abuses.

organization overview

Fortify Rights prevents and remedies human rights abuses by providing technical support to human rights defenders while also conducting independent monitoring and strategic advocacy, combining commonly separate areas of the international human rights movement. Fortify Rights partners with human rights defenders to identify realistic and creative ways to promote and protect human rights. By independently documenting and exposing human rights violations while supporting others to advocate for change at local, national, and international levels, we bring effective pressure on human rights abusers and make the world a more rights-respecting place.

Personal Bio

Matthew Smith is the founder and executive director of Fortify Rights, a human rights organization devoted to strengthening the human rights movement. In 2005, he began working in Southeast Asia as a human rights researcher, trainer, and advocate, developing an intimate understanding of local responses to abuses in the region. He previously worked with Human Rights Watch, EarthRights International, and with Kerry Kennedy of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Matthew’s work has exposed wartime abuses, crimes against humanity, multi-billion dollar corruption, and other human rights violations. He authored several publications with Human Rights Watch, including seminal reports on a deadly civil war in Myanmar’s Kachin State and on a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims. He has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and other outlets. In its first year, the work of Fortify Rights received global press coverage and critical attention from various governments and world leaders. Matthew has an M.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Le Moyne College.

  • Organization/Fellow Location ?

    Our most recent information as to where the Fellow primarily resides.

    Bangkok, Thailand

  • Impact Location ?

    Countries or continents that were the primary focus of this Fellow’s work at the time of their Fellowship.

  • Organization Structure ?

    An organization can be structured as a nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid (a structure that incorporates both nonprofit and for-profit elements).

    Nonprofit

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