Cynthia Rothschild

Vocation

American human rights and sexual rights activist for over two decades, she is the author of Written Out: How Sexuality Is Used to Attack Women's Organizing; the co-author of Strengthening Resistance: Confronting Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS and Amnesty International’s Crimes of Hate, Conspiracy of Silence: Torture and Ill-Treatment Based on Sexual Identity. A trainer and former member of Amnesty International USA's Board of Directors, she is now a member of the Board of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, the Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program, and the Board of the International Center for Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Nigeria. She has been a consultant to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (formerly UNIFEM). She has also worked with a number of NGOs, including the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, in areas related to sexuality, women’s human rights, reproductive rights and HIV/AIDS. Her U.N. advocacy includes a focus on gender and U.N. reform, the U.N. Human Rights Council, the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women and various projects related to HIV/AIDS and rights of young people.