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Roth notes the struggle for human rights is “incessant”; there is no sign that China and others will stop their abuses anytime soon" |
It was strange to be reading Righting Wrongs, Kenneth Roth’s memoir about his time in charge of Human Rights Watch, on the same weekend that the United States bombed Venezuela and abducted its president, Nicolás Maduro. As condemnation of the action failed to arrive from Keir Starmer, or barely any significant European leader, I thought of Roth’s statement that it is “axiomatic that for Human Rights Watch’s methodology to work, some particular government or institution must feel shamed”. Unfortunately, it’s shamelessness that seems to be in the ascendant.
Roth achieved tremendous successes at Human Rights Watch during his 29 years as executive director (he stepped down in 2022), seeing the organisation’s annual budget grow from $7m to $100m. The organisation has campaigned for a diverse range of issues including the banning of landmines and LGBT rights, as well as documenting genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and, in the early 2000s, helping to establish the International Criminal Court. The idea, he explains, is to present reports so solid as to be undeniable, and therefore shame the target government or group into stopping their actions. “Stigmatise with facts,” he writes.
Roth’s predecessor at Human Rights Watch, Aryeh Neier, taught him “the possibility of being an activist with intellectual sophistication”. And according to Roth: “It is not my nature to spend lots of time rallying in the streets or picketing government buildings.” He is, he says, no rabble-rouser. Readers of his somewhat colourless prose would have to agree.... READ MORE https://observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/paperback-of-the-week-righting-wrongs-by-kenneth-roth