Margaux Ewen

Margaux Ewen is the Director of Freedom House’s Political Prisoners Initiative, a major new project to support human rights defenders and prodemocracy activists who are detained in retaliation of their heroic work.

Ewen most recently served as the executive director of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, where she led advocacy efforts to release Americans held hostage or unjustly detained abroad, promote safety for freelance journalists, and support detainees’ families through engagement with government bodies and nongovernmental experts. Ewen also led the foundation's work with congressional cosponsors of the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act and the launch of the Congressional Task Force on American Hostages and Americans Wrongfully Detained Abroad. Prior to leading the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, Ewen served as the North America director of Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontieres (RSF). In this role, she led US-based advocacy, communications, and development for the organization and served as its US spokesperson, appearing on American and international media to discuss press freedom and RSF’s work. Ewen holds a master of laws degree in international and comparative law from the George Washington University Law School and a master’s degree in international law from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.