Kenneth Roth reflects on his career in human rights advocacy, and discusses his activities during the years of the Obama presidency, throughout which he was executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW). Roth outlines the historical development of HRW and the human rights movement, and situates the Obama administration's national security and foreign policy in the context of the presidential admin istrations that preceded it. Roth speaks widely about the range of issues and policies about which HRW advocated during the Obama years, and provides details about the organization's engagement with administration officials and his personal encounters with President Obama, including a May 2009 White House meeting to discuss issues including the possibility of prosecutions related to the Bush administration's use of torture, the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and the use of military commissions for the prosecution of terrorist suspects. Roth also tells the story of his attendance at the China state dinner in 2011, to which the administration invited him as part of their increasingly vocal approach to Chinese human rights abuses. Also discussed are the globalization of HRW's activities and operations, Roth's evaluation of the Obama administration's record on human rights, and the administration's participation in multilateral human rights institutions
Presidents--United States; Torture--Government policy--United States; Military courts--Government policy--United States; Human rights workers; Roth, Kenneth; Obama, Barack; Human Rights Watch (Organization); Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2022
Physical Description
46 pages
Note (Biographical)
Kenneth Roth is an American human rights activist, attorney, and nonprofit executive. At the time of the interview, he was executive director of Human Rights Watch, a position that he had held since 1993. Roth joined Human Rights Watch in 1987, after having served as a federal prosecutor in New York and for the Iran-Contra investigation in Washington, D.C. At Human Rights Watch, Roth conducted numerous human rights investigations and missions around the world. He has written extensively on a wide range of human rights abuses and on issues of international justice, counterterrorism, foreign policies of the major powers, and the United Nations
Note
Interviewed by Evan D. McCormick on January 27, 2022. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Kenneth Roth, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023