Arvind Ganesan is the founding director of Human Rights Watch’s Economic Justice and Rights Division and a member of the organization’s Executive Committee. He leads and oversees the organization’s work to expose human rights abuses linked to business and other economic activity, hold institutions accountable, and develop standards to prevent future abuses in key strategic areas involving corporations, poverty, and inequality. This work has included research and advocacy on a wide range of issues including the extractive industries; public and private security providers; international financial institutions; freedom of expression and information through the internet; labor rights; supply chain monitoring and due diligence regimes; corruption; sanctions; and predatory practices against the poor. Ganesan’s work has covered countries such as Angola, Azerbaijan, Burma, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, India, Indonesia, the United States, and Nigeria. His recent research has focused on predatory lending practices and governance issues on Native American reservations in the United States. He has written numerous reports, op-eds, and other articles and is widely cited by the media.  Several of his investigations and those he has overseen has led to law enforcement investigations and other government investigations into alleged perpetrators.

Ganesan has also worked with key industries to develop industry standards to ensure companies and other institutions respect human rights. He is a founder of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights for the oil, gas, and mining industries and is a founding member of the Global Network Initiative (GNI) for the internet and telecommunications industries, where he has served on its board. Ganesan has helped to develop standards for international financial institutions such as the World Bank, and regularly engages governments in an effort to develop mandatory rules or strengthen existing standards such as the Kimberley Process.

He serves on the board of EGJustice, a nongovernmental organization that promotes good governance in Equatorial Guinea, is the chair of the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR)’s board, a board member of the Fund for Constitutional Governance, a board member of the Allard Prize, a premier anticorruption prize, and a member of the Microsoft human rights advisory council.

Before joining Human Rights Watch, Ganesan worked as a medical researcher. He attended the University of Oklahoma.