A thought provoking presentation of Human Rights Watch from a Global Governance

perspective.

By Stephan Lammerich, Hugo Pimentel, Branislav RadulovicCommentators: Christine Gurski, Shqipe Hajredini, Thuy Dung Vu, Oisin Zimmermann

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1.Introduction2.History3.Finance4.Global Governance Role5.Example 16.Example 27.Criticism8.Conclusion

Agenda

Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated

to defending and protecting human rights.

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Dictionary definition according to Merriam-Webster:

Human Rights = Rights (as freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture, and execution) regarded as

belonging fundamentally to all persons

Introduction

Introduction - What do you think?

Interaction: Please write down one basic human right that everyone deserves.

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“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good

government.”

(Thomas Jefferson )

Introduction – What is the focus of HRW?

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Source: www.hrw.org

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History – Milestones of HRW

Americans Watch

Founded as Helsinki Watch Asia Watch

Africa Watch

Middle East Watch

In 1988 Human Rights Watch is created

• Employs 280 people worldwide• Is active in 90 countries

Finances• 100 % donations - no governmental support! - North America (75%)

and Western Europe (25%), rest of the world (< 1%)• FYE 2009 Total Revenue of $45.3 M• In Sep. 2010 HRW received a $100 M donation

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Revenues/Donations

Source: charitynavigator.org

World Order Where does HRW operate?

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNL2oyvrJZ0– Present in, Sudan, CAR and Congo– Religious military group founded in 1987– Joseph Kony (leader) - sought by the International Criminal Court– Considered a terrorist organization by the USA– Responsible for killings, atrocities, rapes and child soldiers– Horrific and degrading acts of sexual violence– Abducted an estimated 30,000 children (some used for sex)– Displaced 1.6 million people– In May 2010 U.S. President Obama signed into law the LRA

Disarmament and Uganda Recovery Act– HRW called on US president in 2010 and the UN Security Council to take

action. Law Passed in May of 2010.– HRW called on the Sudanese government to ensure no support of any

kind is provided to LRA.

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Example 1 - Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)

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Example 2 - End Child Labor in the Fields – Hundreds of thousands of children in USA work in agricultural sector– Consequences: end of childhood, low wage level, risks for health & life– In US agricultural sector:

• no fixed minimum age for farm work• no limit of working hours/day

– Children start fulltime work with 11 years → get only low education level → forced to work in farming sector permanently

– Children receive wages 30-40% below official minimum wage– In 2000 HRW focused on this problem → report “Fingers to the Bone:

United States Failure to Protect Child Farmworkers” was published– Situation remained unchanged up to 2010 → HRW claims changes in

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and gives recommendations to different US authorities

Source: HRW (2010): Fields of Peril – Child Labor in US Agriculture

Criticism• General critic: Human Rights Watch as a Political Instrument of Liberal

Cosmopolitan Elite of the United States of America or not?

• Poor research and inaccuracy • Accuses HRW of a lack of sufficient expertise to report on warfare. • The pro-Israel research institute NGO Monitor has accused HRW of "faulty

methodology", "misrepresenting international law", and "promoting the BDS agenda.

• Selection bias

• Accusation of ‘imbalance’ since it ignores many human rights abusing

regimes while covering other zones of conflict "intensely", notably Israel.• Funding George Soros donation 100 million US dollars. A number of the

functionaries of HRW joined the structures own by Soros..• Double standards in reporting• Metodology they do not make judgment about the decision to go to war,

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Case studies• Venezuela • In September 2008 Venezuela expelled two HRW staff accused of "anti-

state activities". as a respond on HRW 230-page report, A decade under Chavez:/www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/09/19/venezuela-human-rights-watch-delegation-expelled

• Accused for using false and misleading information in this report. The Council on Hemispheric Affairs 12 January 2009 Scholars Respond to HRW’s Kenneth Roth’s Riposte on Venezuelan Human Rights .

• Bias concerning the Arab – Israeli conflict• HRW has been accused of bias against the state of Israel of issuing "one-

sided and hostile" reports "attacking Israel “and of having an anti-Israel agenda.

• accusations that HRW has ignored anti- Semitism. Anti-Semitism in Europe: Fighting Back by Ana Palacio

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• Yugoslavia• Accused for working hand in hand with Bill Clinton's Administration. • Accused for challenged its territorial integrity and supported the

dismemberment of the unitary state. Executive director Jeri Laber and Kenneth Anderson, “Why Keep Yugoslavia One Country?” New York Times, November 10, 1990.

• Robert Hayden, "Don't Turn Yugoslavia Into Europe's Lebanon," Letter, New York Times, December 3, 1990

• Given the chance to vote as Bosnians, the population of BIH chose instead to vote, overwhelmingly, as Muslims, Serbs, and Croats.”[ Robert M. Hayden, Blueprints for a House Divided: The Constitutional Logic of the Yugoslav Conflicts (University of Michigan Press, 1999), pp. 91-92)

• Nothing critical about ‘’Storm’’ operation in Croatia . 250 000 Serbs out of Croatia in 84 hours. "Croatian Serb Exodus Commemorated,” Agence France Press, Aug. 4, 2004.

• nothing critical about NATO action. Amnesti int.Violation of the Laws of

War by NATO during Operation Allied Force , June, 2000, pp. 11-13. 12/01/2011 Lammerich, Pimentel, Radulovic 14

ConclusionIn Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn’t communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me — and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Pastor Martin NiemoellerA German Anti-Nazi activist, 1960

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