Peter Bouckaert is a human rights activist who served as emergency director for

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

from 1997 until 2017. He has investigated Human Rights abuses in Chechnya, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and the Central African Republic. He now works for

Blue Ventures Blue Ventures is a science-led social enterprise that develops transformative approaches for nurturing and sustaining locally led marine conservation. The organisation works in partnership with coastal communities in places where the ocean is vit ...

, a marine conservation group. His is the subject of the 2014 documentary E-Team, a documentary about the atrocities in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

He has been based in Madagascar since 2019, where he manages a farming project in

Andasibe, Moramanga Andasibe (also Andasibe Gara) is a rural municipality in Madagascar. It belongs to the district of Moramanga, which is a part of Alaotra-Mangoro Region. The population of the commune was estimated to be approximately 13493 in 2006. Geography The ...

Early life

Bouckaert was born in Pellenberg, Belgium, in 1970, and grew up on a farm. He spent part of his youth in the United States.

Education

He graduated from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

, in 1993, and from

Stanford University Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford ...

in 1997.

Career

Bouckaert began work for Human Rights Watch immediately after law school. He was involved in early efforts to investigate and publicize atrocities carried out by the Serbian government in the

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

region in the late 1990s. This work is credited with having inspired the

Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

to support the NATO intervention in Kosovo. Bouckaert helped to create the emergency program for Human Rights Watch to increase the ability of the organization to respond rapidly to major human rights crises. In addition to his work in Kosovo, he was involved in human rights investigations in Chechnya, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and the Central African Republic. The film E-Team documents his investigative work in Libya during the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

intervention in 2011. Bouckaert serves on the board of directors for

The New Humanitarian The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News, or Integrated Regional Information Networks News) is an independent, non-profit news agency focusing on humanitarian stories in regions that are often forgotten, under-reported, misunderstood or ignored. ...

and is employed by

conservation organisation.

Awards and honors

In 2012, he was won the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leuven in 2016.

Selected publications

* Peter Bouckaert and Fred Abrahams, ''Federal Republic of Yugoslavia : a week of terror in Drenica: humanitarian law violations in Kosovo New York,'' 1999,

* Peter Bouckaert, ''Center of the storm: a case study of human rights abuses in Hebron district,'' 2001,

* Peter Bouckaert, ''The Unravelling: Journey Through the Central African Republic Crisis'', 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bouckaert, Peter Belgian human rights activists 1970 births Living people Human Rights Watch people University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Stanford Law School alumni