The international human rights movement : a history PDF
Preview The international human rights movement : a history
The InternatIonal H u m a n R i g H t s M o v e M e n t Neire_International_rev_crc.indb 1 4/11/12 3:28 PM This page intentionally left blank The InternatIonal H u m a n R i g H t s M o v e M e n t A History aryeh neier Princeton University Press Princeton & Oxford Neire_International_rev_crc.indb 3 4/11/12 3:28 PM Copyright © 2012 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Neier, Aryeh, 1937- The international human rights movement : a history / Aryeh Neier. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780691135151 (cloth)—ISBN 0691135150 (cloth) 1. human rights. 2. human rights—history. 3. human rights advocacy—history. I. Title. JC571.N377 2012 323—dc23 2011043994 British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Garamond Premier Pro Printed on acid- free paper. Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Neire_International_rev_crc.indb 4 4/11/12 3:28 PM Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 The Movement 1 2 Putting Natural Law Principles into Practice 26 3 What Are Rights? 57 4 International human Rights Law 93 5 International humanitarian Law 117 6 Defying Communism 138 7 Rights on the Other Side of the Cold War Divide 161 8 Amnesty International 186 9 human Rights Watch 204 10 The Worldwide Movement 233 11 Accountability 258 12 Rights after 9/11 285 13 Going Forward 318 Notes 335 Index 359 Neire_International_rev_crc.indb 5 4/11/12 3:28 PM This page intentionally left blank acknowledgments Many colleagues in the three organizations with which I have been profes- sionally associated for nearly half a century— the American Civil Liber- ties Union, human Rights Watch, and the Open Society Foundations— shaped my thinking and contributed to my knowledge of the human rights movement. They are too numerous to name here, but I express my grati- tude to them for what they taught me and for taking part with me in many struggles for human rights. Also, I offer my thanks to the many brave men and women whose efforts to promote human rights took place in far more difficult and dangerous circumstances than those in which I did my work and whose experiences are described in this book. I express particular gratitude to Leonard Benardo and James Goldston, my colleagues at the Open Society Foundations, and to Professors An- drew Nathan and eric Weitz, for reading the manuscript and for making critical comments. It is, I think, a much better book because of the changes that I made as a result of their comments. Perhaps it would have been bet- ter still, with fewer errors, if I had made more. I also benefited greatly from the editorial pen of eva Jaunzems, and I thank her, Brigitta van Rheinberg, and their colleagues at Princeton University Press for the conscientious professionalism and generous spirit in which they dealt with the book and with me. I have been fortunate to have a superb staff in my office at the Open Society Foundations, a staff made up of Claudia hernandez, Virginia Brannigan, Barbara Meeks, and George hsieh. Virginia Brannigan did the lion’s share of the work on the manuscript, but the others all pitched in from time to time. I am deeply grateful to them. Finally, I am grateful to Yvette, my life partner, for her indulgence in al- lowing me to organize our lives over an extended period to make it possible for me to work on this book. This book is dedicated to Yvette. Aryeh Neier Neire_International_rev_crc.indb 7 4/11/12 3:28 PM This page intentionally left blank 1 The Movement On the morning of July 15, 2009, Natalya Estemirova, a 50- year- old researcher for the Russian human rights organization Memo- rial and former history teacher who had systematically reported on tor- ture, disappearances, and murders in her native Chechnya for nearly two decades, was abducted as she left her home in Grozny and forced into a car. Her bullet- riddled body was found later by the side of a road. She had be- come a victim of just the kind of crime that she had so often documented. For a brief period, the murder of Estemirova was an important news item worldwide. Few outside Russia had even known her name, but a great many now recognized that her death would have serious consequences. Chechnya has a well- earned reputation as a very dangerous place. An un- usually large number of journalists, humanitarian workers, and human rights researchers have lost their lives there in the past two decades. Mem- bers of professions used to working in some of the world’s most danger- ous places have learned to avoid Chechnya. Memorial’s researchers, led by Estemirova, were virtually alone by the time of her murder in keeping the world informed about the ongoing violent abuses of human rights in the territory. Would even Memorial be able to sustain that reporting after her death? “A question hangs over her execution, the most recent in a series of killings of those still willing to chronicle Chechnya’s horrors,” wrote a New York Times reporter, who described her as “both a trusted source and friend.” Is the accounting of the human toll now over? “Without her, will Neire_International_rev_crc.indb 1 4/11/12 3:28 PM
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