*** ex-yu-a-lista ***
Who is behind Human Rights Watch?
The backgrounds of the Board members at Human Rights Watch
(HRW), Europe-Central Asia section, with info on HRW and its
sources of funding. HRW is founded on the idea that the values of
the United States are universal, and that the US must impose them
on the rest of the world. As the largest human-rights lobby, it is
partly responsible for the increasingly expansionist US foreign
policy.
No US citizen, and no US organisation, has any right to impose US values on
Europe. No concentration camps or mass graves
can justify that imposition. But Human Rights Watch finds it self-evident,
that the
United States may legitimately restructure any
society, where a mass grave is found. That was always a widespread belief in
the United States, but it is fast becoming a
consensus among the foreign policy elite. Human Rights Watch itself is part
of
that elite, which includes government
departments, foundations, NGO's and academics. It is not a association of
"concerned private citizens". HRW board members
include present and past government employees, and overlapping directorates
link it to the major foreign policy lobbies in the
US. Cynically summarised, it is a joint venture of George Soros and the
State
Department.
Human Rights Watch is an almost exclusively US-American organisation. Its
version of human rights is the Anglo-American
tradition. It is "mono-ethical", recognising no legitimate ethical values
outside its
own. (Redistribution of wealth is a well-known
example. In the Anglo-American human-rights tradition, seizure and
redistribution of the property of the rich is unethical. The
tradition recognises no inherent value in equality, which could override
property
rights).
Although I do not believe that ethical values are culturally specific, it is
true that
one ethical tradition has become associated with
the United States. That includes the universal rights set out in its
Declaration of
Independence and its Constitution. In a sense
the US was "designed" as an interventionist power: interventionist
human-rights
organisations are a logical result. They express
the belief of most US citizens, that their values are superior to all
others.
Human Rights Watch operates a number of discriminatory exclusions, to
maintain its character.
Firstly, it is linguistically racist. Although it publishes material in
foreign
languages to promote its views, the organisation itself is English-only.
Secondly, the organisation discriminates on grounds of nationality. As
the list
below makes clear, non-Americans are systematically excluded at board level.
The organisation apparently recruits employees only in the United States, in
English. (US readers of this site may be unfamiliar with multilingual
cross-
border employment, but it does exist in Europe).
Third, the organisation discriminates on grounds of social class.
Again, the
list makes clear that board members are recruited from the upper class, and
upper-middle class. Although I traced almost all the board members
professions,
there are none from middle-income occupations - let alone any poor
illegal
immigrants, or Somali peasants.
Human Rights Watch can therefore claim no ethical superiority. It is itself
involved in practices it condemns elsewhere, such as discrimination in
employment, and exclusion from social structures. It can also claim no
neutrality.
An organisation which will not allow a Serb or Somali to be a board member,
can give no neutral assessment of a Serbian or Somali state. It would
probably
be impossible for an all-American, English-only elite organisation, to be
anything
else but paternalistic.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Helsinki Steering Committee
This is the Europe section of the Board of HRW, which is split into sections
approximately by continent. The section was established in 1978 (in the late
1970's human rights became the main issue in Cold War propaganda). The unit
in the organisation is called the Europe and Central Asia Division. It is
affiliated
with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, which
co-ordinates
the "Helsinki committees". Source: HRW Board of Directors & Advisory
Committees
Jonathan Fanton, Chair
An academic and foundation man. Former Vice President of the University
of Chicago, in 1982 appointed as President of the New School for Social
Research, now the New School University. He is active in building US
academic contacts with eastern Europe, directed at the new pro-western
elites, see the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS) page.
Alice H. Henkin, Co-Vice Chair
Director of the Justice and Society Program at the Aspen Institute, an
elite
think-tank.
Note their report Honoring Human Rights: From Peace to Justice
proposing
United Nations mission strategies later used in Kosovo.
Peter Osnos, Co-Vice Chair
George Soros' publisher. He is Chief Executive of Public Affairs
publishers.
Morton Abramowitz
A link to the US Foreign Policy establishment, one of several at HRW.
Abramowitz was U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (1989-91) and Assistant
Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research (1985-89), among other
posts:
see his personal details at the Council on Foreign Relations, CFR,
where he
is a Fellow. The CFR is the heart of interventionist US policy since 1921
(and
hated by the isolationist right).
He directed the CFR Balkan Economic Task Force, which published a
report on "Reconstructing the Balkans".
Barbara Finberg
A donor of HRW, see the list below. A retired vice president with the
Carnegie Corporation of New York, who donated $1 million to Stanford
University.
Felice Gaer
Human rights specialist at the American Jewish Committee and chair of
the
Steering Committee for the 50th anniversary of the UN Human Rights
Declaration, see this biography:
"Ms.Gaer is Director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the
Advancement of
Human Rights. Author, speaker, and activist, she is a member of the Council
on
Foreign Relations, the Board of Directors of the Andrei Sakharov
Foundation, a member of the International Human Rights Council at the
Carter Center, ...Vice President of the International League for Human
Rights."
According to this JTA report, Gaer praised Madeleine Albright for her
"outstanding human rights record".
Felice Gaer was also a non-governmental member of the United States
delegation to a United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva,
where (according to the Voice of America) she denounced Sudan, saying
the the U.S. "cannot accept those who invoke Islam or other religions
as
justification for atrocious human rights abuses." However, more interesting
is this
speech at the Geneva meeting, where she suggested the UN should no
longer investigate prison rapes in the US: "we would urge the Special
Rapporteurs to focus their attention on countries where the situation is the
most
dire and the abuses the most severe."
Michael Gellert
Vice Chairman of the Board at Fanton's New School for Social Research..
Investment manager and Trustee of the Carnegie Institute.
Gellert is a director of Premier Parks Inc., owner of the Six Flags and
Walibi
theme park chains. Also a director of:
High Speed Access Corp.,
Devon Energy Corporation,
Humana Inc..
Paul Goble
Director of Communications and political commentator at Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, the Cold War propaganda transmitters that survived the
end of the Cold War. From their website
"Free Europe, Inc., was established in 1949 as non-profit, private
corporations to broadcast news and current affairs programs to Eastern
European countries behind the Iron Curtain. The Radio Liberty Committee,
Inc., was created two years later along the same lines to broadcast to the
nations inside the Soviet Union. Both were funded
principally by the U.S. Congress, through the Central Intelligence
Agency,
but they also received some private donations as well. The two corporations
were merged into a single RFE/RL, Inc. in 1975."
It is still funded by the US Government, through Congressional
appropriation.
Bill Green
Former Republican member of Congress, a trustee of the New School for
Social Research (where Fanton is President), with many other public and
business posts: see the biography at the American Assembly, an
academic/political think-tank.
Stanley Hoffman
A pro-interventionist theorist (of course that means US intervention,
not a
Taliban invasion of the US). Professor at Harvard, see his biography. Note
that
his colleagues include Daniel Goldhagen, who openly advocated
occupation of Serbia, to impose a US-style democracy: see A New Serbia.
Robert James
Also on the Board of Human Rights in China, another Soros-funded
organisation.
Jack Matlock
US Ambassador to the Soviet Union during its collapse, 1987-1991.
Author
of Autopsy On An Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the
Collapse of the Soviet Union (Random House, 1995).
Member of the large Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council. The
Atlantic
Council is more than a pro-NATO fan club: it supports an expansionist US
foreign policy in general. Note their recent paper (in pdf format) Beyond
Kosovo, a redesign of the Balkans within the framework of the proposed
Stability Pact.
The Atlantic Council list of sponsors is a delight for
corporate-conspiracy
theorists. Yes, it is all paid for by the Rockefeller foundation, the Soros
foundation, the Nuclear Energy Institute, Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, Exxon,
British Nuclear Fuels, the US Army and the European Union.
Conspiracy theorists will also be delighted to see that Matlock
attended the
1996 Bilderberg Conference.
Herbert Okun
Career diplomat, former Special Advisor on Yugoslavia to Secretary of
State Cyrus Vance, Deputy Co-Chairman of the International Conference on
the former Yugoslavia. Member of the Board of the Lawyers
Alliance for World Security (LAWS) and its affiliate the Committee for
National Security (CNS) which gives this biography:
Ambassador Herbert Okun is the U.S. member and Vice-President of the
International Narcotics Control Board, and Visiting Lecturer on
International
Law at Yale Law School. Previously, he was the Deputy Chairman on the U.S.
delegation at the SALT II negotiations and led the U.S. delegation in the
trilateral U.S.-U.K.-USSR Talks on the CTBT. From 1991 to 1993
Ambassador Okun was Special Advisor on Yugoslavia to
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Personal Envoy of the U.N. Secretary
General, and Deputy Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the
former Yugoslavia. He also served as Deputy Permanent Representative of the
United States to the UN from 1985 to 1989 serving on the General Assembly,
the Disarmament Committee and the Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer
Space. Amb. Okun was also U.S. Ambassador to the former German
Democratic Republic.
He was from 1990-97 Executive Director of the Financial Services
Volunteer Corps, "a non-profit organization providing voluntary assistance
to
help establish free-market financial systems in former communist countries",
see
his biography at International Security Studies at Yale University,
where he is
also a board member. This Corps is a de facto agency of USAID, see how it is
listed country-by-country in their report. Although it is not relevant to
Human Rights Watch, this curriculum vitae gives a good impression of
the
kind of international elite created by such programs.
Okun is also a member emeritus of the board of the European Institute
in
Washington, an Atlanticist lobby. It organises the European-American Policy
Forum, the European-American Congressional Forum, and the Transatlantic
Joint Security Policies Project. Okun is a special advisor to the Carnegie
Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict funded by the Carnegie
Corporation. (It links pro-western international elite figures advocating a
formal structure for control of states by the "international
community").
Okun was a member of a Task Force (including Bianca Jagger and George
Soros) on war criminals: see their report . Although it also demands "UN
Sanctions Against States Harboring Indicted War Criminals" it is unlikely
that the Task Force members meant the man quoted at the start of their
report, President Clinton.
A curiosity: this human rights supporter is accused of an attempt to
destroy
the right to free speech, in his post at the International Narcotics Control
Board:
see A Duty to Censor: U.N. Officials Want to Crack Down on Drug
War Protesters in the libertarian Reason Magazine.
Jane Olson
Also co-chair of the California section of HRW, see this biography. One
of
the few who are simply human rights activists, although her views are
clearly
100% acceptable to the US Government. She was appointed a member
of the U.S. delegation to the 1991 Conference on Security and
Cooperation
in Europe (CSCE) in Moscow.
Again note, that US citizens consider it normal to travel to Europe, to
decide
on that continents Security and Cooperation - but there is absolutely no
"Conference on North American Security and Cooperation", where Europeans
arrive to tell Americans what to do.
She is also a member of the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation,
one of many small globalist groups, advocating peace and some vague form of
world government.
Barnett Rubin
Academic and Soros-institutes advisor. Director of the "Center for
Preventive Action" at the Council on Foreign Relations.The center is funded
by
the US Government through USIP, and by the Carnegie Corporation as part of
their program Preventing Deadly Conflict. "Preventive Action" means
intervention.
He is a member of the centers South Balkans Working Group, and edited a
1996 Council on Foreign Relations study Towards Comprehensive Peace in
Southeast Europe: Conflict Prevention in the South Balkans.
Rubin is an Afghanistan specialist, also on the Board of the Asia
division of
HRW. He authored and edited several works on Afghanistan. Rubin apparently
has a curious attitude to the Taliban, seeing them as a bulwark against
Islamic radicalism . See this letter to NPR, entitled Afghanistan
Whitewash:
While the Lyden-Rubin conversation made no mention of US support for
the
Taliban, they referred several times to US "pressure" on the Taliban to now
respect human rights. This is a total white wash which distorts the
historical
record beyond recognition.
Rubin is on the Advisory Board of the Soros Foundation Central Eurasia
Project. He is an advisor of the Forced Migration Project of Soros' Open
Society Institute, and he is also on the Board of the Soros Humanitarian
Fund
for Tajikistan. Perhaps most interesting is that the U.S. Institute of
Peace (a
de facto government agency) gave him a grant to research "formation of a new
state system in Central Eurasia".
Barnett Rubin articles on Central Asia
This may be repetitive, but note once again that there are absolutely
no
Foundations or Institutes in Central Asia, which pay people to design "new
state
systems" in North America. For people like Rubin "human rights" mean
simply that the US designs the world: at the same time, the US might
accept
the Taliban, if it was a strategic interest. See this article at the Soros
Central
Asia site, The Political Economy of War and Peace in Afghanistan,
advocating a de facto colonial government in Afghanistan financed by
oil
revenues.
Rubin is also a member of the US State Department Advisory Committee on
Religious Freedom Abroad. The Final Report of this Committee also sums up
what the United States can do, when it finds religious freedom has been
infringed. The list begins at "friendly, persuasive: open an embassy" and
ends
with "act of war".
Note also that Rubin was also involved in the 1997 New York meeting,
where the United States attempted to create a unified Yugoslav opposition,
with
among others Vuk Draskovic: see my site on Vesna Pesic or the PER site.
Leon Sigal
NOTE: I can find no website matching this info on "Leon Sigal" to HRW..
I
assume it is the same person, although I do not understand why an expert on
Asian issues is on the board for the European division of HRW.
Consultant to the Social Science Research Council, member of the Board
of
Advisors at Globalbeat Syndicate, part of the New York University Dept of
Journalism. See their article on Lessons From The War In Kosovo.
From Globalbeat:
He is a former member of the Editorial Board of The New York Times,
where he wrote frequently on nuclear issues, and is the author of many books
and articles on both international security and media issues.
Sigal authored Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea
(Princeton University Press 1998). He is a Project member of the Committee
on Nuclear Policy.
Malcolm Smith
no information yet
George Soros
From the Public Affairs site, the biography of George Soros, financier of
HRW
and of numerous organisations in eastern Europe with pro-American, pro-
market policies.
George Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1930. In 1947 he
emigrated to England, where he graduated from the London School of
Economics. While a student in London, Mr. Soros became familiar with the
work of the philosopher Karl Popper, who had a profound influence on his
thinking and later on his philanthropic activities. In 1956 he moved to the
United
States, where he began to accumulate a large fortune through an
international
investment fund he founded and managed.
Mr. Soros currently serves as chairman of Soros Fund Management
L.L.C..,
a private investment management firm that serves as principal investment
advisor
to the Quantum Group of Funds. The Quantum Fund N.V., the oldest and
largest fund within the Quantum Group, is generally recognized as having the
best performance record of any investment fund in the world in its
twenty-nine-
year history.
Mr. Soros established his first foundation, the Open Society Fund, in
New
York in 1979 and his first Eastern European foundation in Hungary in 1984.
He
now funds a network of foundations that operate in thirty-one countries
throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union, as well
as
southern Africa, Haiti, Guatemala, Mongolia and the United States. These
foundations are dedicated to building and maintaining the infrastructure and
institutions of an open society. Mr. Soros has also founded other major
institutions, such as the Central European University and the International
Science Foundation. In 1994, the foundations in the network spent a total of
approximately $300 million; in 1995, $350 million; in 1996, $362 million;
and in
1997, $428 million. Giving for 1998 is expected to be maintained at that
level.
In addition to many articles on the political and economic changes in
Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union, Mr. Soros is the author of The Alchemy
of Finance, Opening the Soviet System, Underwriting Democracy, and Soros
on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve.
Mr. Soros has received honorary doctoral degrees from the New School
for
Social Research, the University of Oxford, the Budapest University of
Economics, and Yale University. In 1995, the University of Bologna awarded
Mr. Soros its highest honor, the Laurea Honoris Causa, in recognition of his
efforts to promote open societies throughout the world.
Soros Foundations Network
Open Society Institute Staff Directory
Privatization Project
Open Society Institute Budapest
Donald J. Sutherland
Also on the advisory board of the World Policy Institute.
Ruti Teitel
Professor of Constitutional Law at the New York Law School, see his
biography. In the last few years he has specialised in the Constitutions of
eastern
European countries, and advised on the new Ukrainian constitution.
William D. Zabel
George Soros legal advisor, on foundation and charity law. A estate and
family financial lawyer for the rich at Schulte, Roth, and Zabel. His
biography
lists his involvement with these Soros Foundations: "Newly Independent
States and the Baltic Republics, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Central
European University and Open Society Fund". See this biographical article
originally from the National Law Journal: When fate knocks, rich ring for
Zabel
He is a trustee of Fanton's New School of Social Research, and member
of
the Advisory Board of the World Policy Institute at the New School.
Zabel is a director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. The
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights is one of the partners in the "Apparel
Industry Partnership", a group set up by the Clinton administration and the
US
clothing and footwear industries to defuse criticism of conditions in
their
factories. The (not particularly radical) US trade union federation refuses
to co-
operate with it.
Zabel is also on the Board of Doctors of the World, the USA branch of
Médecins du Monde, founded by Bernard Kouchner in 1980. Kouchner is now
the UN Representative ( the "governor") in Kosovo. Despite the name,
Médecins du Monde is a purely western organisation, see the affiliate list.
Warren Zimmermann
US Ambassador to Yugoslavia during its break-up, author of Origins of
Catastrophe: Yugoslavia and Its Destroyers. A Cold-War career diplomat, long
active in US human rights campaigns against eastern Europe. See this site
for an
extreme pro-Bosniac assessment of his book by Branka Magas, alleging he
appeased Milosevic:
"In the event, by pursuing Yugoslavia's unity rather than supporting
Slovenia
and Croatia in their demands for either the country's confederal
transformation
or its peaceful dissolution, the United States helped ensure its violent
break-up".
(I think it is logically consistent with US values and interests, that the
US
supported one policy around
1990 and another in Kosovo. The real problem is that so many people in
Europe expect the US to design their states and write their Constitutions.
It is
because of this attitude, that people like Zimmermann, and organisations
like HRW, can flourish) Zimmermann is now a professor of Diplomacy at
Columbia University. If you think the "amoral diplomat" is a stereotype,
look at
his Contemporary Diplomacy course. This is his assignment for the young
future
diplomats:
Imagine that you are a member of Secretary Albright's Policy Planning
Staff.
She has asked you to write a strategy paper for one of the following
diplomatic
challenges:
--Dealing with NATO expansion and with the countries affected;
--Crafting a more energetic and assertive US approach to the
Israeli-PLO
deadlock;
--Raising the American profile in sub-Saharan Africa;
--Developing a US initiative to improve relations with Cuba;
--Forging an American approach to Central Asia and its energy wealth;
--Making better use of the UN and other multilateral organizations like
OSCE;
--Weighing the relative priorities between pursuing human rights
and keeping open lucrative economic opportunities;
--Increasing interest in, and support for, US foreign policy among the
American people.
With Barnett Rubin, Zimmermann is a member of the Advisory Board of the
Forced Migration Project at Soros Open Society Institute.
With Felice Gaer, Zimmermann is also on the Board of the
quasi-commercial
International Dispute Resolution Associates. (Peacemaking has become big
business, but IDR is also funded by the US Government through the USIP).
He is a Trustee of the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International
Affairs
HRW DONORS
From the HRW website, this 1995 list is is the latest available online.
DONORS OF $100,000 OR MORE
Dorothy and Lewis Cullman
The Aaron Diamond Foundation
Irene Diamond
The Ford Foundation
The Lillian Hellman & Dashiell Hammett Fund
Estate of Anne Johnson
The J. M. Kaplan Fund
The Fanny and Leo Koerner Charitable Trust
The John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The John Merck Fund
The Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation
Novib, The Dutch Organization for Development Corporation,
The Overbrook Foundation
Oxfam
Donald Pels
The Ruben and Elisabeth Rausing Trust
The Rockefeller Foundation
Marion and Herbert Sandler, The Sandler Family Supporting Foundation
Susan and George Soros
Shelby White and Leon Levy
DONORS OF $25,000 - $99,999
The Arca Foundation
Helen and Robert Bernstein
Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Bronfman, Jr.
Nikki and David Brown
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Compton Foundation, Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Davis
The Dr. Seuss Foundation
Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller
Jack Edelman
Epstein Philanthropies
Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de L'Homme
Barbara Finberg
General Service Foundation
Abby Gilmore and Arthur Freierman
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund
Katherine Graham, The Washington Post Company
Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
Hudson News
Independence Foundation
The Isenberg Family Charitable Trust
The Henry M. Jackson Foundation
Robert and Ardis James
Jesuit Refugee Service
Nancy and Jerome Kohlberg
Lyn and Norman Lear
Joshua Mailman
Medico International
Moriah Fund, Inc.
Ruth Mott Fund
Kathleen Peratis and Richard Frank
Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation
Ploughshares Fund
Public Welfare Foundation, Inc.
Anita and Gordon Roddick
Edna and Richard Salomon
Lorraine and Sid Sheinberg
Margaret R. Spanel
Time Warner Inc.
U.S. Jesuit Conference
Warner Brothers, Inc.
Edie and Lew Wasserman
Maureen White and Steven Rattner
Malcolm Wiener and Carolyn Seely Wiener
The Winston Foundation for World Peace
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