Human Rights Watch World Report 2007

I originally had no plans to review this book, but with this book only having the one negative review I feel as though I should say something, so here it is. Of course any book that is dedicated solely to documenting and detailing any and all human rights abuses throughout the world will not be an uplifting, feel-good read, but it is a necessary labor in that it is important, especially for those in the West in free and safe societies, to make ourselves aware of the truly horrible events that happen in our world on a daily basis. It is our ignorance of these events that help those who perpetrate these crimes continue to do so unabated. It is only when we are made aware of some of these horrible regimes that we as individuals and then collectively can act to put pressure on these regimes. Darfur is a perfect example of this. If it were not for the tireless and dangerous effort put in by reporters, governments and NGOs like HRW that gather and then disseminate this information to the wider world that these crimes here would remain isolated from our consciousness, but instead we are aware and thus able to pressure our governments and other governments that support this regime to stop the killings. This is the power of organizations like HRW. They don't have an army or guns. They don't have the ability to force governments to treat their citizens humanly, but what they do have is knowledge and that can be a very important weapon against human rights abusers. This is why groups such as HRW and books like this one are so important and necessary because without them it is very likely that many of us would simply remain unaware of the suffering that is inflicted on millions of people throughout the world. International pressure helped to end the apartheid regime in South Africa and it is putting a lot of pressure on nations like China right now. Knowledge is power and this book is a powerful work. This is what these organization do. They shine a very bright light on every abuse they can so that those who commit these egregious acts know that they are being watched and that the wider world will know of their crimes. Knowledge is the first step to correcting the many wrongs that are committed in this world on daily basis and this work will give you this knowledge.