Kenneth Roth is the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, the largest U.S.-based international human rights organization. Under his leadership, Human Rights Watch has spearheaded the move to create a permanent international criminal court and to ban anti-personnel landmines, both with the critical support of Canada.
In his address to the Canadian Club Mr. Roth will argue that, in the face of the serious security threat posed by terrorism, there is a tendency for Western governments to see human rights as an inconvenient obstacle, perhaps even a dangerous one. In fact, Western violation of human rights is perilously short-sighted. It makes us less safe, by breeding anti-Western resentment and by undermining international standards that protect civilians as well as coalition troops in Iraq. The war in Iraq offers an opportunity to adopt a more enlightened human rights policy, but only if Western powers, particularly the Bush Administration, recognize the importance of international standards as a constraint on the temptations of expediency and power.
Mr. Roth has conducted human rights investigations around the globe, devoting special attention to issues of justice and accountability for gross abuses of human rights and standards governing military conduct in time of war. Previously, he worked as a U.S. federal prosecutor in New York and on the Iran-Contra investigation in Washington.
