Apr022025
Book Talks Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments
Join us for the book launch of “Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments,” in which Kenneth Roth will present his reflections on a lifetime spent in the struggle for human rights.
Event Overview
Please join us for the book launch of “Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments” in which Kenneth Roth presents his reflections on a lifetime spent in the struggle for human rights.
In three decades under the leadership of Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch grew to a staff of more than 500, conducting investigations in 100 countries to uncover abuses—and pressuring offending governments to stop them. Roth has grappled with the worst of humanity, taken on the biggest villains of our time, and persuaded leaders from around the globe to stand up to their repressive counterparts.
The son of a Jew who fled Nazi Germany just before the war began, Roth grew up knowing full well how inhumane governments could be. He has traveled the world to meet cruelty and injustice on its home turf: he arrived in Rwanda shortly after the Genocide; scrutinized the impact of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait; investigated and condemned Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians. He directed efforts to curtail the Chinese government’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims, to bring Myanmar’s officials to justice after the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, to halt Russian war crimes in Ukraine, even to reign in the U.S. government. Roth’s many innovations and strategies included the deployment of a concept as old as mankind—the powerful tool of “shaming”—and here he illustrates its surprising effectiveness against evildoers.
This is a story of wins, losses, and ongoing battles in the ceaseless fight to rend the moral arc from the hands of injustice and bend it toward good. The event is co-sponsored by Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program, the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, the Harvard Human Rights Journal, and HLS Advocates for Human Rights.
This is a hybrid event. Please register here to attend virtually on Zoom. Lunch will be provided for in-person attendees.
This event is sponsored by Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program and the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, along with the Harvard Human Rights Journal and HLS Advocates for Human Rights.
Panelists:
Kenneth Roth is Senior Fellow at the Carr Center and the Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor at the Princeton School for Public and International Affairs. Previously, he served as the executive director of Human Rights Watch for nearly three decades.
Gerald L. Neuman (moderator) is the Director of the Human Rights Program, and the J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law at Harvard Law School. He teaches courses in international human rights law, immigration and nationality law, and U.S. constitutional law.