Let’s bring more diversity to Human Rights Watch

It is an article of faith within human rights circles that one advocate shall not speak ill of another. Violating this code of the blue wall of silence is sacrilege. Public critiques of the human rights movement by insiders are rare. But today, I will breach that wall of silence. Insiders driven by a religious zeal to fight abominations by bad governments see themselves as modern-day missionaries preaching to, and confronting, the benighted. As a result, self-reflection and internal self-criticism are virtually unheard of in human rights NGOs. Human Rights Watch, the gold standard for human rights NGOs in America, is particularly afflicted by self-righteousness. That is why HRW is an abysmal failure on diversity.

The staff of HRW reveals a stunning absence of diversity for an organisation that purports to speak for the entire world. The board stands out for its demographic exclusiveness. Like the Academy which votes on Oscars, the board of HRW is overwhelmingly white. I decided to go public because recently HRW nominated to its board Akwasi Aidoo, the sole African, to its board. There is no doubt Mr Aidoo, the executive director of Trust Africa, a foundation dedicated to advancing good governance in Africa, is a respected human rights personality. But the token appointment exploits Mr Aidoo to blunt criticism of HRW.