Agnes Callamard, who led a United Nations' investigation into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has been appointed the new leader of Amnesty International. She succeeds Acting Secretary-General Julie Verhaar.
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The international human rights group said Callamard's four-year term as secretary-general begins Monday.
Callamard, a French human rights expert, has previously led the free-speech organization Article 19 and directs the Global Freedom of Expression Project at Columbia University. As the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, she investigated the killing of Khashoggi, who entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, to pick up some documents, and never walked out.
Sarah Beamish, chair of Amnesty's International Board, said Callamard's "intellectual acuity, her deep global human rights experience, and her courageous voice makes her highly qualified to front our movement."
