Nisha Varia

Focus areas: Human rights research and advocacy, theories of change, trauma-informed methods, labor rights, feminist movements, migrant domestic workers' rights, international human rights and labor standards 

Nisha Varia is a human rights advocate and researcher currently working as an independent consultant. She supports organizations and social change movements with strategy development. She also provides trainings on trauma-informed research and advocacy methods. 

Varia worked at Human Rights Watch between 2003 and 2021, including as the global Women’s Rights Advocacy Director and as a Senior Researcher. She designed and led human rights investigations and advocacy campaigns across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. 

Varia has conducted advocacy in partnership with human rights, feminist, labor, and climate movements. Areas of focus include gender-based discrimination and violence, domestic workers’ rights, labor migration, and human rights impacts of natural resource extraction. Varia was integrally involved in the negotiation and adoption of three international labor treaties: the 2011 ILO Domestic Workers Convention, the 2014 ILO Forced Labor Protocol, and the 2019 ILO Violence and Harassment Convention.

Varia has expertise in a range of research and advocacy methods. She authored comprehensive guidelines on conducting human rights interviews and co-led the training program for Human Rights Watch’s global research staff. She also taught human rights research, advocacy, and writing at the New School University between 2012 and 2018. 

Varia was formerly a Fulbright Scholar to India, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Education

• MA in International Affairs, Columbia University
• BA in Economics, Anthropology with Honors, Stanford University