Federico Borello

Federico Borello is the Deputy Executive Director and Chief Programs Officer at Human Rights Watch and is based in The Hague. He joined Human Rights Watch in 2024 and oversees the organization’s programmatic work, with specific attention to its research, advocacy, communications, and legal and policy departments.

Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Borello was the Executive Director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) for nearly a decade. He also served as Director of Investments at Humanity United and as a Senior Policy Advisor to Mary Robinson, the United Nations special envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa. Other roles include being a legal adviser for the UN International Commission of Inquiry on Guinea and the UN Justice Mapping Exercise in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and as Coordinator for the Transitional Justice Unit at the UN Mission in the Congo. He has also worked as a senior associate at the International Center for Transitional Justice and had a host of other human rights roles focusing on Argentina, Cambodia, Rwanda, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, among other countries.

Borello holds a law degree from the University of Milan, Italy, and a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in New York. He speaks English, French, Spanish, and Italian.