On Thursday, Sept. 9, Just Security and the Knight First Amendment Institute co-organized an event with the leaders of major U.S. human rights organizations who have steered their institutions in the years following 9/11. The event was framed as a space for critical self-reflection on how the U.S. human rights community responded to the challenges that were presented in the days, months, and years after the attacks. What were the major decision points for human rights organizations? Where was advocacy effective and where wasn’t it? What would those groups do differently if they were confronted with the same choices again?

The full video of the event is published below.

Speakers:

Elisa Massimino, Former President and CEO of Human Rights First

Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union

Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch

Linda Sarsour, Co-chair of the 2017 and the 2019 Women’s March and Former Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York

Moderator:

Jameel Jaffer, Executive Director of Knight First Amendment Institute and Executive Editor of Just Security

Readers may also be interested in Jameel Jaffer’s essay — “In the ‘War on Terror,’ What Did Rights Organizations Get Wrong?” — which was published as part of a Symposium in the lead up to the 20th anniversary of September 11.