More Than 100 Latin America Experts Question Human Rights Watch's Venezuela Report

[Joanne98]

December 17th 2008, by Various Authors
In an open letter to the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch, over 100 experts on Latin America criticized the organization's recent report on Venezuela, A Decade Under Chávez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela, saying that it "does not meet even the most minimal standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy, or credibility." The signers include leading academic specialists from universities in the United States, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and a number of state universities, and academic institutions in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, México, the U.K., Venezuela and other countries.


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December 16, 2008

Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA

To the Board of Directors,

We write to call your attention to a report published by Human Rights Watch that does not meet even the most minimal standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy, or credibility. The document, A Decade Under Chávez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela, appears to be a politically motivated essay rather than a human rights report. Indeed, the lead author of the report, Jose Miguel Vivanco, stated as much when he told the press just a few days after its publication, "We did the report because we wanted to demonstrate to the world that Venezuela is not a model for anyone..."<2>

Clearly Mr. Vivanco is entitled to his views about Venezuela, but such statements run counter to the mission of Human Rights Watch and indeed any organization dedicated to the defense of human rights. By publishing such a grossly flawed report, and acknowledging a political motivation in doing so, Mr. Vivanco has undermined the credibility of an important human rights organization.

Continued>>>
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4051

[ensho]

1. kick the neo cons out of Human Rights Watch

nt

[bemildred]

2. HRW has shown the flexibility of its spine before.

But not this badly, they pretty much be-shit themselves with this one. Not even the pretense of impartiality or scholarship.

[acmavm]

3. So, they're calling the corporatist supporters liars? What was their first

clue?

[T Wolf]

4. The demonization of anthing Venezuelan, and therefore Chavez-connected, continues steadily under the

Bushies. For counting purposes, file it under ideology-over-science (social).

They are everywhere. Their ability to influence messages coming from everywhere[/b[ is impressive. And that much harder to counter.