Human Rights

Human Rights  » Strategic Blackmail with Infinite Compassion

Strategic Blackmail with Infinite Compassion

Last night, we were invited to an evening with Ken Roth,

Executive Director of Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights

of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists

to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to

protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring

offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights

violations and hold abusers accountable. We challenge

governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices

and respect international human rights law. We enlist the public

and the international community to support the cause of human

rights for all.

Ken Roth is a former litigator and federal prosecuter, who has

dedicated his energy to the Human Rights cause over the last two

decades.

He explained HRW's mission, methods, and results in an engaging

talk. A recent victory was described eloquently.

A Belgian judge has issued an international arrest warrant

charging Chads exiled former president, Hissène Habré, with

human rights crimes committed during his 1982-1990 rule. Habré

lives in exile in Senegal, where he was indicted over five years

ago before courts ruled that he could not be tried there. The

Belgian warrant marks a turning point in the long effort to

bring Habré to justice, and should lead to his extradition from

Senegal to Belgium to stand trial. This man, in his days, killed

tens of thousands of people, until Souleymane Guengueng, a

modest and deeply religious civil servant who watched hundreds

of his cellmates perish from torture and disease during two

years in Habrés prisons, took an oath before God that if he ever

got out of jail alive, he would bring his tormentors to justice.

But it was the methods that he described that were the most

compelling.

In a nutshell, HRW uses strategic blackmail to arm-twist

governments and powers to get them to cooperate, and to put a

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stop to unacceptable ways. No government wants to be publicly

accused as a human rights violator. HRW has tremendous

credibility with the world media for telling it as it is. Their

reports are authentic, generated by researchers on the field, at

considerable personal risk. They have the ability to create

front page headlines in all major newspapers worldwide.

I was impressed by the combination of ruthlessness and killer

instinct and getting the job done focus, set in the context of

immense kindness.

It was still a rare, warm San Francisco night when we came out.

With a sigh I thought to myself: Such, I hope, would be the

anatomy of leadership in the years to come.

About the author:

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and Strategy Consultant Sramana

Mitra writes about Entrepreneurship, Business Strategy, Emerging

Technology, Market Moves, and sundry other topics in her Blog

"Sramana Mitra on Strategy". Read more of her writings at

http://www.sramanamitra.com.