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On April 23, 2021 President Biden announced his intent to nominate Sarah Margon to be Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. The WH released the following brief bio:
Sarah Margon, Nominee for Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Department of State
Sarah Margon currently serves as the U.S. Foreign Policy Director at the Open Society Foundations. Previously, she served as Washington Director and, before that, Deputy Washington Director for Human Rights Watch. Margon also was Associate Director for Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding at the Center for American Progress and Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator Russ Feingold and Staff Director for the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs. Earlier in her career she was Humanitarian and Conflict Policy advisor for Oxfam America. Margon holds an M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a B.A. in American Studies from Wesleyan University.
According to history.state.gov, on Apr 21, 1975, in response to growing Congressional interest in human rights issues in foreign policy, the Department of State established the position of Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs. The International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (Jun 30, 1976; P.L. 94-329; 90 Stat. 748) made the Coordinator a Presidential appointee, subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, and changed the title to Coordinator for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. Career diplomat James Morrison Wilson Jr. served as the first Coordinator from 1976–1977. Section 162 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 (P.L. 103-236; 108 Stat. 403), authorized the appointment of an Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor May 12, 1994.
If confirmed, Ms. Margon would succeed Robert A. Destro who served from 2019-2021. Previous appointees to this position include Patricia Murphy Derian (1977–1981), Elliott Abrams (1981–1985), Harold Hongju Koh (1998–2001) and Tomasz P. Malinowski (2014–2017).
I know a bit about what it takes to do the job of @DRL_AS.🙂
And I can say that @SarahMargon is a principled, effective, and bipartisan leader, who would be a wonderful choice to spearhead the Biden administration's human rights agenda. https://t.co/URIEhTRCCK
— Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski) April 21, 2021
When I worked on the Hill, there was only a handful of members and staffers on each side of the aisle deeply committed to a bold democracy and human rights agenda and active in pursuing it. @sarahmargon was one of them. https://t.co/7jOTUiZLLN
— Richard Fontaine (@RHFontaine) April 21, 2021
Biden's pick to run the DRL, Sarah Margon, is known as a serious critic of U.S. alliances with dictatorships, did a stint at Human Rights Watch, & was particularly vocal about the U.S. enabling human rights abuse in Egypt.https://t.co/pO900PntTn
— Avi Asher-Schapiro (@AASchapiro) April 23, 2021
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