Katalusis: Celebrating Human Rights Day!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Celebrating Human Rights Day!

This just in from Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch:

Dear Virginia,

Today, on Human Rights Day, we want to recognize all that you have helped us to achieve. As the Empire State Building glows blue this evening to honor the global human rights movement, we would like to share with you just a few examples of the incredible impact you helped our researchers to achieve in 2014:

After seven years of documentation and targeted advocacy on rights abuses around the 2008 Beijing and 2014 Sochi Olympics, the International Olympic Committee

has agreed to include rights protections in host city contracts. It has begun by adopting a non-discrimination clause that will require host countries to respect equality—furthering the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and supporting the rights of women to participate in sports worldwide.

Our work exposing dangerous conditions for child workers on tobacco farms in the United States helped lead two of the country’s largest tobacco growers associations to adopt new policies prohibiting

children under 16 from working on tobacco farms. By implementing these policies, tobacco growers will no longer employ young children in this dangerous work.

Following the horrific chemical weapons attack on the civilians of Ghouta, Syria last August, our researchers’ quick response and meticulous documentation—using video forensics, GPS data, and

remote eyewitness interviews—confirmed the likelihood that Bashar al-Assad’s government was responsible. Our work helped to galvanize international support for a United Nations resolution to rid Syria of chemical weapons, and global arms experts have now supervised the destruction of Syria’s stockpile.

This Human Rights Day we recognize the extraordinary efforts of Human Rights Watch researchers and celebrate all of their remarkable impact.

But we also want to pause to recognize you, our supporters. It is because of your commitment that we are able to continue to protect victims and defend the human rights of countless people across the globe.

From everyone at Human Rights Watch, we wish you a happy Human Rights Day. Thank you for standing with us.

Sincerely,