Omar Tabuni

Omar Tabuni is a government affairs manager at POGO. Prior to joining POGO, he launched projects on accountability for atrocity crimes. Omar has worked closely with attorneys at the Gill Law Firm and the Libyan American Alliance to manage high-impact human rights cases in U.S. federal courts on behalf of Libyan and Tunisian survivors and victims of torture and extrajudicial killing. Prominent cases he worked on were the filing of civil complaints in U.S. federal court against Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of a Russian mercenary group, and General Khalifa Haftar for alleged war crimes. The cases were covered in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Aljazeera, NBC, NPR, and the Associated Press.

Through his engagement with the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees, Omar has pushed for legislation that seeks to hold accountable individuals who commit human rights violations and war crimes, violate the arms embargo in Libya, or threaten the peace, security, and stability of Libya, and that restores the nascent democracy in Tunisia, which has suffered from democratic backsliding.

Omar grew up in Seattle. He attended the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. His mother and he were the first to start a Mediterranean food business at the Seattle Farmers Market. His mother is a vendor at the famous Pike Place market. Omar speaks fluent Arabic and is passionate about the Middle East and North Africa region. He loves to travel, watch soccer games, and is a boxing fan.