Andrew Friedman

Andrew Friedman (Bluesky, LinkedIn) is the Director and Senior fellow of the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He’s also an Adjunct Professor at the Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. Andrew served as a democracy officer with USAID’s Bureau for Africa, providing technical and strategic guidance for democracy, rights, and governance work across the region. He also co-led USAID’s Executive Committee on the 2021 Summit for Democracy and coordinated the anti-corruption session of the Civil Society Forum at the 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit. While with USAID, Andrew joined CSIS’s Africa Policy Accelerator, where he also served as a board member.

Prior to his time in government, he served as a legal and democratic governance consultant working with various UN agencies, including the Secretariat, UN Women, and multiple UN Development Program Country Offices on constitutional and legal reform, good governance, transitional justice, and human rights.

He is a member and contributor to both the International Academy of Constitutional Law and the African Network for Constitutional Lawyers, and he was recognized with an Amicus Mundi award from We The Action for pro bono work assisting in the passage of laws expanding the rights of sexual assault survivors in U.S. states.