DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now)

DAWN is a nonprofit organization that supports democracy and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Our vision is for a world where the human rights, liberty, and dignity of every person in the region are upheld by democratically elected governments, safeguarded by independent institutions and civil society organizations working under the rule of law, and supported by international governments and institutions around the world.

As a U.S.-based organization, DAWN focuses its research, analysis, and foreign policy advocacy on MENA governments with close ties to the United States and on the military, diplomatic, and economic support the U.S. government provides them since that is where we believe we have the greatest responsibility and the greatest opportunity for influence.

Our goal is to ensure that U.S. foreign policy supports the people in the MENA region by ending support for their abusive, undemocratic governments. We believe that U.S. national interests are ill-served by support for these governments and better protected by policies that foster peace, freedom, equality, and justice.

Through rigorous research and analysis, relentless media outreach, targeted advocacy with policymakers, and convenings of leading human rights and foreign policy experts, DAWN challenges conventional wisdom about the MENA region and the U.S. role in it, rallies support for policies that uphold human rights, and leads the brainstorming of new solutions to long-standing regional problems.