Lowy Lecture Series: Security Council challenges for Australia: The Middle East, Africa and Asia - Kenneth Roth

How Australia can use its new seat to promote better solutions to some of the world’s toughest human rights problems.

Kenneth Roth is the executive director of Human Rights Watch, one of the world's leading international human rights organizations, which operates in more than 90 countries.

Mr Roth has written extensively on a wide range of human rights abuses, devoting special attention to issues of international justice, counterterrorism, the foreign policies of the major powers, and the work of the United Nations. He is quoted widely in major publications and on television and radio shows, and speaks to audiences around the world.

Prior to joining Human Rights Watch in 1987, Mr Roth served as a federal prosecutor in New York and for the Iran-Contra investigation in Washington, D.C. A graduate of Yale Law School and Brown University, he began working on human rights after the declaration of martial law in Poland in 1981 and soon also became deeply engaged in fighting military repression in Haiti. Mr Roth has conducted numerous human rights investigations and missions worldwide.