Ken Roth
The New School
New York, NY
Mar 8th, 2007
[A video version of this presentation with transcripts is available at
Fora.tv]
The Human Rights Watch publishes an annual report of the
state of human rights in 70 countries where it works. Accompanying the release of the report, Ken Roth, HRW's executive director, discusses some of the biggest issues in
human rights, especially the lack of a global leader in the field.
From Roth's perspective, the United
States has lost the moral high ground due to
its actions in the war on terror. While
the US
can still lead on topics like genocide, civil society, and free press and
elections, it is less credible on the topics of torture, forced disappearance, and detainment. In addition to violating those human rights,
it also lowers the standards that the US helped establish.
Countries like Mexico
and Norway that are
generally helpful but limited by lack of influence or political ties to the United States. China will sometimes deal with offending
countries without restriction or inquiry, which undermines international
sanctions. Russia
is economically strong, but allying with offending governments like Uzbekistan in order to gain power.
The only remaining large power is the European Union which
is good on paper but limited by its organizational structure. The consensus basis of the EU has
helped human rights greatly in countries joining it. All EU member countries must accept an
applicant country, which must meet high standards. This consensus means that outside of the EU
boundaries, countries are held to the lowest standards since any EU member can
veto action. Their power is also limited
by the constantly changing leadership which must relearn the issues every six
months.
Ken Roth is the executive director of Human Rights Watch, a post
he has held since 1993. Human Rights Watch investigates, reports on,
and seeks to curb human rights abuses in some 70 countries. From 1987
to 1993, Mr. Roth served as deputy director of the organization.
Previously, he was a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office
for the Southern District of New York and the Iran-Contra investigation
in Washington. He also worked in private practice as a litigator.
Mr. Roth has conducted human rights investigations around the globe,
devoting special attention to issues of justice and accountability for
gross abuses of human rights, standards governing military conduct in
time of war, the human rights policies of the United States and the
United Nations, and the human rights responsibilities of multinational
businesses. He has written more than 80 articles and chapters on a
range of human rights topics in such publications as the New York
Times, the Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, the International Herald
Tribune, and the New York Review of Books. He also regularly appears
in the major media and speaks to audiences around the world.
A graduate of Yale Law School and Brown University, Mr. Roth was
drawn to the human rights cause in part by his father's experience
fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938. He began working on human rights after
the declaration of martial law in Poland in 1981, and soon also became
deeply engaged in fighting military repression in Haiti. In his
thirteen years as executive director of Human Rights Watch, the
organization has quadrupled in size, while greatly expanding its
geographic reach, and adding special programs devoted to refugees,
children's rights, international justice, AIDS, gay and lesbian rights,
human rights emergencies, terrorism and counterterrorism, and the human
rights responsibilities of multinational corporations.
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