Carolina Jiménez Sandoval inaugurates a new era of leadership as she assumes the position of President of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
She brings to WOLA over 20 years of experience in research and advocacy for human rights in the Americas and throughout the world. As a leader in the field who has worked extensively throughout the region and in Washington, she is poised to guide WOLA’s team to an even greater strategic impact for social justice and human rights.
She comes to WOLA from Amnesty International, where she was Deputy Research Director for the Americas in Mexico City. In her almost seven years there, she led a team of researchers documenting human rights violations and designing advocacy strategies to guarantee respect for human rights. Her work included a wide variety of themes and countries, from addressing grave crimes under international law to promoting the rights of migrants and refugees. Previously, she worked for the Open Society Foundations’ Latin America program based in Washington DC. (Read Dr. Jiménez’s full bio).
She is the first person from Latin America to lead WOLA in its over 45-year history.
Watch Dr. Jiménez discuss the challenges to human rights in the Americas, and her vision guiding WOLA’s research and advocacy:
“Without a doubt, we’re living through difficult and complex times: times in which the COVID-19 pandemic is revealing one of the worst faces of the inequality that has long characterized our society,” said Dr. Jiménez. “Times in which democracy looks like a far-off promise, while the authoritarian tendencies of various political leaders in the region seem like the order of the day.”
“Despite this worrying and bleak context, Latin America is also home to a vibrant civil society, filled with energy and committed to the defense of human rights,” she said. “WOLA will remain a close ally and partner. We will promote innovative research, advocacy, and communications, in order to continue exploring and proposing solutions to the major human rights challenges of the region.”
