Kenneth Roth Biography
Kenneth Roth an American attorney known for having served as the executive director of Human Rights Watch as of 1993.
Kenneth Roth Age
Roth was born on September 23, 1955, in Elmhurst, New York, United States.
Kenneth Roth Career
Jimmy Carter’s introduction of human rights as part of us policy within the late Nineteen Seventies further inspired Roth to take on human rights as a vocation, Roth has said.
Before starting at Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 1987, Roth worked in private practice as a litigator and served as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Iran-Contra investigation in Washington DC.
During early years of his work in the human rights movement, Roth focused on the Soviet imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981. Roth joined Human Rights Watch in 1987 as deputy director. His initial work targeted on Haiti, that was simply rising from the Duvalier dictatorship but continued under military rule.
Roth has traveled internationally on behalf of Human Rights Watch. His life history on the HRW web site says he has
“special experience on: problems with justice and responsibility for atrocities committed in the quest for peace; military conduct in war below the wants of international humanitarian law; scheme policy, including resort to torture and arbitrary detention; the human rights policies of the u. s., the european Union, and the United Nations; and, the human rights responsibilities of multinational businesses.”
Roth has published numerous articles, newspaper op-eds, and articles in academic journals, including “Domestic Violence as an International Human Rights Issue”, in Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives; “The Case for Universal Jurisdiction”; “The Charade of US Ratification of International Human Rights Treaties”; and “The Law of War in the War on Terror – Washington’s Abuse of Enemy Combatants” His Twitter handle is @KenRoth.
In Sept 2007, Roth gave a lecture”The Dynamics of Human Rights and the Environment” at the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series. Roth frequently addresses audiences all round the world, including at the U.N in New York, universities and conferences, including the Munich Security Conference and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Kenneth Roth Net Worth
Roth estimated net worth is under review.
Kenneth Roth Human Rights Watch
Roth was employed back in 1987,by Aryeh Neier to be deputy director of HRW and from 1993 (when Neier left to become head of George Soros’ Open Society Institute), Roth has been the organization’s executive director.
Under Roth’s leadership, Human Rights Watch has grown eight-fold in size and vastly expanded its reach. It now operates in more than 80 countries. During Roth’s tenure, Human Rights Watch has documented war crimes in Bosnia, the DRC, Iraq and Sierra Leone.
Human Rights Watch researchers have testified at international tribunals. The organization has also done extensive work on child soldiers. Human Rights Watch published reports on Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, Peru’s Alberto Fujimori, and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, among others, who were subsequently convicted for crimes against humanity.
As a founding member of the International Campaign to ban Landmines, in 1997 Human Rights Watch shared the Nobel Peace Prize for assisting bring about the Mine Ban Treaty. Following WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s arrest, Roth stated that Assange’s prosecution in the US for publishing leaked documents is “a major threat to global media freedom.”
Kenneth Roth Anti-Israel Contovercies
Roth has been criticized by the Jerusalem-based Non Govermental Organization Monitor for allegedly being biased against Israel. Gerald M. Steinberg has been a long-time critic of Roth’s role as head of Human Rights Watch from 1993.
Writing in a 2004 Jerusalem Post article in response to Roth’s op-ed in which Roth accused Non Governmental Organization Monitor of disregarding basic facts, “fictitious allegations of bias” and a “fantasy-based discourse” which “does a deep disservice to Israel”.
In August 2006, during the fight between Hezbollah and Israel, Roth rejected criticism of HRW’s allegations against Israel, writing in a letter to the editor of The New York Sun: “An eye for an eye — or, more accurately in this case, twenty eyes for an eye — may have been the morality of some more primitive moment. But it is not the morality of international humanitarian law which Mr. Bell pretends to apply.”
In response, the head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) referred to Roth’s rhetoric as a reflection of “classic anti-Semitic stereotype about Jews”., arguing that disproportionate retaliation was justified and necessary against Israel’s Arab enemies, and that Israel’s actions in the war were justified as legitimate attacks on military targets against an enemy using human shields.
In reaction to Richard Goldstone’s recantation of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict report, HRW Founder Robert Bernstein said to the Jerusalem Post in April 2011, referring to Roth, that it “is time for him to follow Judge Goldstone’s example and issue his own mea culpa.”
On April 26, 2015, he drew criticism for attacking Israel for sending humanitarian aid to Nepal during the April 2015 Nepal earthquake, due to its blockade of Gaza, which he saw as a humanitarian crisis of “Israel’s own making”.
Kenneth Roth Awards And Honors
- City of Athens Democracy Award, 2016
- Doctor of Humane Letters, Brown University, 2011
- Doctor of the University, University of Ottawa, 2010
- Doctor of Laws, Bowdoin College, 2009
- William Rogers Award, Brown University, 2009
- Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, Tufts University, 2004