Rachel Reid is the director of the Regional Policy Initiative (RPI) on Afghanistan & Pakistan, which does research and advocacy on conflict and security issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for the Open Society Foundations. RPI’s primary areas of focus are conflict and security related human rights issues, including civilian casualties, detention abuse, militias, women’s rights and security, conflict and corruption, and insurgent abuses against civilians. The team partners with national human rights organizations and research organizations, writing joint reports, providing small grants, and helping to provide Afghan and Pakistani organizations with national, regional, and international networking, and advocacy platforms.
 
Reid came to OSF from Human Rights Watch, where she’d been the Afghanistan Analyst from 2008 to 2011, living in Afghanistan, and researching a wide range of human rights concerns, including women’s rights, media freedoms, and civilian casualties.
 
Prior to her move into human rights work, Rachel spent more than a decade with the BBC, including reporting for the BBC World Service in Afghanistan, editing the BBC’s Newshour, and serving as the BBC’s Middle East Producer in Cairo, Egypt. She graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. She is a regular commentator in the international media on human rights issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
 
photo credit: © Marc McAndrews