Critics of the Human Rights Industry

Critics of the Human Rights Industry

• Nabeel Abraham
• Francis Boyle

Amnesty International is primarily motivated not by human rights but by publicity. Second comes money. Third comes getting more members. Fourth, internal turf battles. And then finally, human rights, genuine human rights concerns. To be sure, if you are dealing with a human rights situation in a country that is at odds with the United States or Britain, it gets an awful lot of attention, resources, man and womanpower, publicity, you name it, they can throw whatever they want at that. But if it's dealing with violations of human rights by the United States, Britain, Israel, then it's like pulling teeth to get them to really do something on the situation. They might, very reluctantly and after an enormous amount of internal fightings and battles and pressures, you name it.— Francis Boyle, 2002.

• Louise Cainkar
• Sara Flounders
• Lisa Hajjar
• Edward Herman
• Paul de Rooij
• Cheryl Rubenberg
• Jan Abu Shaka
• Kirsten Sellars
• Raja Shehadeh
• Janice Terry
• Agustin Velloso

Resources and articles

1. Nabeel Abraham, Cheryl Rubenberg, Lisa Hajjar, Hilary Shadroui, Janice Terry, International Human Rights Organizations and the Palestine Question, MERIP, volume 18, issue 1, pages 12 to 20, January-February 1988.
2. Francis Boyle and Dennis Bernstein, Amnesty on Jenin, CovertAction Quarterly, issue 73, pages 9 to 12, Summer 2002. Important discussion about the nature and history of Amnesty International.
3. PIWP listing on the Politics of Human Rights organizations