authoritarian leaders, authoritarian practices around the world does mean, does demand that amnesty international be present. the uganda anti homosexuality act, the anti. another law passed by hungary. the anti trans laws adopted by many states in the united states. the rejection of gender. of course we need to be there why? because those laws are suggesting that lgbti people are not human, that they don t have the same humanity as us, and that is absolutely undermining the entire human rights system. we need to be there with them shoulder to shoulder. you radiate energy and passion, but ijust wonder in your heart of hearts whether right now you are overwhelmed by gloom and pessimism? because, as we ve established from the very beginning of this interview, the tides
that women, that trans, are being targeted by authoritarian leaders, authoritarian practices around the world does mean, does demand that amnesty international be present. the uganda anti homosexuality act, the anti. another law passed by hungary. the anti trans laws adopted by many states in the united states. the rejection of gender. of course we need to be there why? because those laws are suggesting that lgbti people are not human, that they don t have the same humanity as us, and that is absolutely undermining the entire human rights system. we need to be there with them shoulder to shoulder. you radiate energy and passion, but ijust wonder in your heart of hearts whether right now you are overwhelmed by gloom and pessimism?
the cultural wars are part and parcel of fighting for human rights. the fact that lgbti, that women, that trans, are being targeted by authoritarian leaders, authoritarian practices around the world does mean, does demand that amnesty international be present. the uganda anti homosexuality act, the anti. another law passed by hungary. the anti trans laws adopted by many states in the united states. the rejection of gender. of course we need to be there why? because those laws are suggesting that lgbti people are not human, that they don t have the same humanity as us, and that is absolutely undermining the entire human rights system. we need to be there with them shoulder to shoulder.
to enter hong kong to engage in research about the human rights situation in territory which is, of course, a sovereign part of china, it seems a somewhat strange way of going about your work. yeah, i mean, well, china has blocked us from entering for some time in terms of doing research. but my point is that, you know, there is this serious threat, not just domestically, but china is really actively trying to undermine the global human rights system. because, you know, if you put yourself in the shoes of xijinping, you know, if somebody says, well, you know, why are you president of china? he can t say, well, the chinese people freely elected me. i mean, that s preposterous. so he has to say, well, you know, i m giving them prosperity and they ve given up their freedoms and they re happy with this. now, you know, we saw a massive refutation of that in the one part of china that was free to speak out. that was hong kong. you know, hundreds of thousands of people took to the stree
would do to try to rein in war crimes. he is pursuing a war crimes strategy. now that you ve finished your tenure at human rights watch and you can kind of look back over the three decades, do you think you got some things wrong? and do you think that what you ve just outlined as the responsibility to tread very carefully when it comes to being political, do you think you sometimes got that wrong? and i m particularly thinking about how you spoke out against china, and paraphrasing you slightly, described china as the greatest threat to global democracy. i mean, that put you on a collision course with beijing, didn t it? well, i mean, what i said is that, you know, china is the greatest threat to the global human rights system. i completely believe that. in fact, you know, when i went to hong kong to hold a press conference releasing a report where that was the thesis, they blocked me at the airport injanuary 2020 and sent me back to new york.