UNITED
NATIONS, April
22 -- Who
does Human
Rights Watch
work for? On
Monday
HRW named two
new co-chairs
of its board
of directors,
and even after
the financial
meltdown and
despite the
overlap of
HRW's work on
international
financial
markets, both
are investment
bankers.
Could
this be a
conflict of
interest?
Separately,
why have both
co-chairs
be from the
same
(financial
services)
industry? The
same industry
as
HRW's
main funder,
so recently
(and
inaccurately)
eulogized by
Reuters?
The
first list
co-chair is
Joel Motley of
Public Capital
Advisors, the
website of
which brags of
its expertise
in
“international
financial
markets.” They
have an office
in Bogota,
Colombia.
Couldn't these
be a conflict?
The
second listed
co-chair is is
Hassan Elmasry
of Independent
Franchise
Partners,
listed as a
top 10 owner
of the S&P
rating agency.
This
while
questions
swirl around
the credit
rating
agencies' role
in the
subprime
global
financial
meltdown which
has harmed
social and
economic
rights
worldwide.
Conflict? What
safeguards are
in place?
Inner
City Press has
repeatedly
asked HRW to
at least
summarize what
issues
its Ken Roth
raised to UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon. For
example,
did
Roth and HRW
raise to Ban
the issue of
the UN
dismissing
claims
it brought
cholera to
Haiti?
The
UN's planned
use of drones
in the
Democratic
Republic of
Congo and now
Cote d'Ivoire?
HRW
replied
that it would
not even
summarize the
issues, in
order to
maintain
access.
Then Inner
City Press was
taken and
remains off
the
distribution
list of HRW's
canned
comments,
though it
covers the UN.
Not
for nothing,
but could HRW
be raising,
even
indirectly,
issues of its
investment
banking
co-chairs or
“international
financial
markets”? This
is why they
should answer
such
questions.
Watch this
site.
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