Manmeet Kaur Nijjer
Manmeet is the current Assistant Director of Programs for the Human Rights Institute, where she previously held the position of Program Associate. Prior to joining the Human Rights Institute, Manmeet was a Team Assistant for the United Nations 1267 and 1988 (Al Qaida, ISIL, and Taliban) Sanctions Monitoring Team within the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs. She assisted counter-terrorism experts with a variety of tasks: conducted research and analyzed data on terrorist activity; created briefing books for intelligence gathering country visits; and managed highly confidential databases. During her graduate program, Manmeet conducted qualitative research by interviewing former members of non-state armed groups, which was then analyzed within her master’s thesis, “The Exacerbation of Non-State Armed Group Violence Succeeding Government Abuses of Physical Integrity Rights.” While completing her M.A., she was also an Administrative Office Assistant for the Columbia University Institute for Social and Economic Research Policy. Previously, Manmeet also worked as an Research Assistant for the Department of Religion at Hofstra University where she provided research support on topics such as religion, peace studies, political violence, human rights, and militancy.
Manmeet holds a M.A. in Human Rights Studies with a focus on Armed Conflict from the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a B.A. summa cum laude in Criminology, Public Policy & Public Service, and Religion from Hofstra University with a specialized concentration on Counter-Terrorism Policy in the United States.