The Age of Impunity: How Autocrats Win When Democracies Falter
Kenneth Roth warns: human rights are under siege. From Trump’s embrace of dictators to China’s war on truth, silence isn’t neutrality, it’s complicity.
On a damp Monday evening in London, a room filled with journalists, advocates, and the morally curious leaned in to listen. The topic was human rights—a subject that should be universally embraced but is increasingly subject to political convenience and brutal suppression. At the heart of the conversation sat Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, a man who has spent decades in the trenches of global justice.
The setting was an event hosted by Tortoise Media, a newsroom that prides itself on slow, considered journalism. The format was intimate, almost conspiratorial. A discussion rather than a lecture. A place for tough questions. And as Roth took his seat, the weight of the topics at hand, Trump, Ukraine, Gaza, China, Rwanda, and the United Kingdom, settled into the air like an unshakable fog.
The Power and Peril of Shaming
The conversation opened with an intriguing assertion. The fight for human rights, Roth argued, is not a matter of moral persuasion but of calculated pressure. Governments don’t change because they are embarrassed; they change because the cost of their abuses becomes too high.
“Every government today,” Roth explained, “has to pretend to respect human rights. It’s a matter of legitimacy.”
And so, the work of an organisation like Human Rights Watch isn’t simply to document atrocities, but to leverage them into action to make repression too costly to sustain.
There was skepticism in the room. In an era where autocrats seem immune to public disgrace, does shaming still work?
Roth was resolute.
“If shame didn’t work, China wouldn’t be spending billions censoring information,” he said. “If shame didn’t work, Putin wouldn’t be jailing journalists.”
The strategy, then, is twofold: expose hypocrisy and enlist the right external pressures to force a change. The method has worked before against Assad, against Putin in Idlib, against Milosevic in Serbia. And yet, the battle remains unfinished.
Trump, Putin, and the Death of Norms
Inevitably, the discussion turned to Donald Trump. Roth’s assessment was grim.
“Trump has this perverse admiration for Putin,” he said. “And I don’t think anybody’s really been able to explain why. Maybe it’s the lack of opposition, maybe it’s the longevity Trump would love to be president-for-life.”
I asked a pointed question: There are Western intelligence agencies already refusing to share information with Trump’s administration1. Meanwhile, the UK, under Prime Minister Starmer, seems intent on courting him. The Guardian has reported extensively on Trump’s role as a potential Putin tool2. Are we pretending we haven’t been bitten? Or are we just hoping we haven’t?
Roth nodded. “Trump is driven by ego. He responds to flattery. It’s embarrassing to watch world leaders try to manipulate him this way, but unfortunately, it works. And if you want to influence him, you have to appeal to his self-interest, not his sense of duty.”
China’s Assault on Human Rights
Roth’s most urgent warnings, however, were about China, not merely as a human rights violator, but as an ideological challenger to the very concept of human rights.
“China isn’t just repressing the Uyghurs,” he said. “It’s trying to rewrite the definition of human rights entirely. To them, it’s about GDP growth, stability, and obedience, not individual freedom.”
The Belt and Road Initiative, he argued, is a $1 trillion bribery scheme. By funding infrastructure with opaque loans, China ensures that autocrats remain in power, and in return, those governments vote Beijing’s way at the United Nations. The Chinese government’s influence is creeping beyond its borders, enforcing its censorship and punishing dissenters even in foreign capitals.
“It’s not just about China anymore,” Roth warned. “It’s about the erosion of rights globally.”
The West’s Hypocrisy and the Gaza Question
As the discussion turned to Israel and Gaza, the tension in the room thickened. Roth, who has long been a critic of Israeli policies, didn’t flinch. “We don’t have a Palestinian exception to human rights,” he said. “Netanyahu wants people to believe Israel is held to an unfair standard. The truth is, Israel is held to the same standard as every other state.”
The war in Gaza has exposed the fault lines in Western commitments to human rights. “Biden has said all the right things about civilian casualties,” Roth noted, “but he hasn’t backed it up with action. The U.S. holds the key to Israeli policy, it provides the weapons, the funding, the diplomatic cover.” Yet, even when the International Criminal Court pursued Netanyahu alongside Hamas leaders, the U.S. reaction was telling: celebration when the ICC targeted Putin, outrage when it turned its gaze to Israel.
Rwanda, Congo, and the Crimes the West Ignores
Amid discussions of superpowers, Roth pointed to Rwanda as a case study in Western hypocrisy. “Kagame is the darling of the West,” Roth said. “He sponsors Arsenal, he sends peacekeepers to Mozambique, and the UK wanted to send asylum seekers to him. But behind that image is a brutal dictatorship.”
Kagame’s government has supported armed groups in eastern Congo, where atrocities continue. “When we exposed Rwandan backing of M23, it took three reports before anyone believed us. But when we finally did, it led to policy changes, and for a time, the violence subsided.” Now, the M23 is back, and Kagame remains largely untouchable.
The Future of Human Rights Advocacy
As the evening drew to a close, the conversation turned inward. What can individuals do? How do we fight back against the creeping tide of authoritarianism?
Roth’s answer was deceptively simple: speak.
“What you say at the dinner table, what you post on social media, the conversations you have, they all shape public opinion. And public opinion is what gives human rights advocacy its power.”
It was a hopeful note in an otherwise sobering discussion. And yet, Roth’s parting words rang with the weight of history. “The moral arc of the universe doesn’t bend toward justice on its own,” he reminded us. “It bends because people like you push it.”
As the audience rose from their seats, there was a palpable sense that the fight was not over. The battle against autocracy, against repression, against injustice, is relentless. But as long as there are those willing to push, there is still hope that justice will prevail.
‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy — The Guardian.