With democracies in peril across the globe, effective, impartial, and honest human rights advocacy is more needed than ever. When human rights advocacy is done right, it can have tremendous benefits. Just consider the cases of the late Andrei Sakharov or Natan Sharansky during the Cold War, or the international outcry on behalf of African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela.
When human rights advocacy is done wrong, however, the second-order effects can be tremendous. Autocrats and abusers can amplify an organization’s dishonesty or mistakes to delegitimize not only the flawed reports, but also those which are true. Thirty years ago, distinguished political scientist Guenter Lewy wrote Peace and Revolution, a study about how many pacifist organizations betrayed their true principles for the sake of politics. After the American Friends Service Committee, for example, embraced the genocidal Khmer Rouge, who should trust them on North Korea or the Hamas-run Gaza Strip?
