Kenneth Roth

Litigating the War on Terror: An Exchange

The head of Human Rights Watch rejects criticism that efforts to mitigate America’s worst excesses after September 11, 2001 helped sanitize US belligerence.

Authoritarians’ Covid-19 Crisis Power Grab

For authoritarian-minded leaders, the coronavirus crisis is offering a convenient pretext to silence critics and consolidate power.

How China Threatens Human Rights Worldwide

The Chinese government is not the only threat to human rights today, but it stands out for its reach and influence. Other governments must resist China’s divide-and-rule strategy for securing silence about its oppressions.

China’s Burgeoning Surveillance State

Taken together, these surveillance powers in Xinjiang suggest that the Chinese government is perfecting a system of social control that is both all-encompassing and highly individualized, using a mix of mechanisms to impose varying levels of supervision and constraint on people depending on their perceived threat to the state.

Russia and the Syrian Reconquest of Idlib

The endgame of the war in Syria is likely to come down to the northwestern province of Idlib, on the Turkish border, where some 2.3 million people are now trapped. Russia clearly has the necessary leverage over the Assad government to avoid a bloodbath there. The key is getting Russia to use that leverage.

Trump’s Cruel Deportations

A fair immigration system would consider family and community ties before ordering deportation, but US law generally ignores them, and Trump’s policies are taking this to new extremes.

Saving Lives in Endless Wars

Remembering Bob Silvers

On the late editor of The New York Review

Must It Always Be Wartime?

‘How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon’ by Rosa Brooks

What Trump Should Do in Syria

What kind of policy might the president-elect adopt toward the Syrian conflict?

‘Who Rules the World?’: An Exchange

A Case Against America

‘Who Rules the World?’ by Noam Chomsky

Slavery: The ISIS Rules

Obama & Counterterror: The Ignored Record

The president’s disappointing record on rights

The End of Human Rights?

Compromise with Kony?

Africa Attacks the ICC

The NSA vs. Free Speech

In addition to infringing on privacy in vast areas of our lives, the NSA’s spying poses a global threat to freedom of expression over the Internet.

Syria: What Chance to Stop the Slaughter?

Rethinking Surveillance

As a federal prosecutor in the 1980s, I used to think nothing of scooping up the phone numbers that a suspect called. Today, by contrast, when I look at the government’s large-scale electronic surveillance of private communications, I see an urgent need to rethink the rationale—and legal limits—for such intrusion.