Habib Nassar

Nassar is a lawyer and activist with over twenty years of experience in human rights and transitional justice at both local and international levels. He is originally from Lebanon and Brazil. He currently leads victim participation and family support activities at the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria (IIMP). Until July 2024, he served as the Director of Policy and Research at Impunity Watch, where he conducted extensive research and advocacy on victim activism and participation in justice efforts, while also developing and overseeing the organization’s programs in West Asia and North Africa. Previously, Nassar worked at PILnet: The Global Network for Public Interest Law, where he was Acting Executive Director and Director for the Middle East and North Africa. In this role, he developed programming focused on strategic litigation and clinical legal education. Before joining PILnet, he gained significant experience working on transitional justice across various contexts, including Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen, and provided advisory support on transitional justice to OHCHR and UNDP in North Africa. Nassar also held multiple roles at the International Center for Transitional Justice, including Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program following the 2011 Arab uprisings. He is a member of the Law and Peace Practice Group at the Institute for Integrated Transitions. Before his international involvement, he worked with several grassroots and international human rights organizations, addressing issues such as enforced disappearances, protection of human rights defenders, and election monitoring. He also taught transitional justice and human rights at Hunter College in New York. Nassar holds an LL.M. from New York University, a master’s in international law from Université Paris II, and a law degree from Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut.