show bio Irene Khan

Irene Khan is the former Secretary General of Amnesty International. A citizen of Bangladesh, she joined Amnesty International in 2001, becoming the first woman, the first Asian and the first Muslim to head the world’s largest human rights organization. She has overseen a period of change in the organization, including a larger focus on economic, social and cultural rights. Additionally, she has increased efforts to promote the issues of women's human rights and violence against women.

The U.S. and Human Rights
Date: 4/30/2008

Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Kahn discusses the United States’ human rights record and analyzes major human rights challenges facing the world today. She says that the world looks to the United States as a leader on issues related to human rights only to find that the Bush administration’s counterterrorism policies have eroded that leadership. Particularly, she discusses the prison conditions for terrorism detainees at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. approach to torture, and the use of war as the sole means to combat terror.

Related Lectures

  • image
  • image
  • image
  • image
  • image