Human Rights Watch's Saudi funding scandal tarnishes the NGO industry

In 2010, the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch published a report on Saudi Arabia that included criticism of Mohamed bin Issa al Jaber’s business practices, such as gross mistreatment of employees and other rights violations. One year later, al Jaber gave the organization a $470,000 gift, negotiated by HRW’s executive director, Ken Roth, who also agreed to limit the group’s gay advocacy in its Middle East activities.

Nine years later, when the details of this deal were leaked, some asked how Roth and HRW, held up as paragons of virtue, selflessly and fearlessly fighting the good fight for human rights, could have betrayed basic ethical principles.