Ken Roth

Executive Director, Human Rights Watch
Who's Falling Short on Human Rights?
59 minutes, 27.3mb, recorded 2007-03-08
Ken Roth

When it comes to preserving and promoting human rights worldwide, which nations are doing their part and which are not? In this audio lecture at the New School in New York, Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, discusses some of the biggest issues in this area, especially the lack of a global leader in the field. His remarks accompany the release of the organization's annual report of the state of human rights in 70 countries where it works. Roth is critical of the United States' own human rights violations, and talks about The European Union's efforts, as well as the actions of countries that are more helpful but lack influence in the global arena.

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, 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. Roth has conducted human rights investigations around the globe, and has written more than 80 articles and chapters on a range of human rights topics. A graduate of Yale Law School and Brown University, Roth was drawn to the human rights cause in part by his father's experience fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938.
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