The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age With the Human Rights Movement

Description

Though Jeri Laber earned a master's degree in Russian Studies at Columbia-an unusual accomplishment for a woman, at the height of the Cold War-marriage and motherhood became her principle occupations. But at the age of 46, a financial setback, marital discord, and an article about torture she read one day in the New Republic altered the course of her life and subsequently the lives of countless others around the world. The Courage of Strangers is the story of how Laber went from working as a part-time cookbook editor to founding and becoming executive director of Human Rights Watch; in which capacity she invented a new form of advocacy: that of the human rights investigator, a combination of journalist and scholar with a passionate political conviction. Between the early 1970s and the end of the century Ms. Laber met and worked with some of the great political activists and dissidents of the age, and was eyewitness to the unexpected unraveling of what we once called the Communist Empire. This is the history of the human rights movement in the guise of the inspiring story of one woman's complicated good life.

Jeri Laber's articles have appeared in many newspapers and magazines. She is the co-author of A Nation is Dying: Afghanistan Under the Soviets. In recognition of her human rights work, she was awarded the Order of Merit by President Vaclav Havel on behalf of the Czech Republic. She is also the recipient of a Research and Writing Grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.