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Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, mother of three daughters, has been working in human rights since 1981 and has led more than forty human rights delegations to more than thirty countries. In 1987, she established the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights to ensure the protection of rights codified under the U.N. Declaration of Human rights. Her book, Speak Truth to Power, includes interviews with human rights defenders from more than 35 countries. Their stories of courage in the face of torture, abuse, imprisonment and death threats inspire readers to believe in the power of individuals who stand up for what they believe is right, no matter what. I spoke with Kennedy Cuomo about what motivates the people she wrote about and what motivates her.
KERRY KENNEDY CUOMO: I think there are heroes all around us. All you have to do is look. There are those who are well known: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, so many others who have stood up to government repression, who have faced imprisonment and torture, who are fighting around the world for basic freedom which most American's take for granted. There are heroes in all of us as well and that's the great thing about the human spirit is that we can draw from the depth of our own souls and find a hero within and use that to change our communities.
KKC: First thing to do is to talk to our children about issues of justice. Children understand justice very instinctively. If you have ever spent time with a 3 or 5 year old you will inevitably hear "That's not fair." So there are ways that we can talk to them about these issues. For instance, a few weeks ago in our home we were saying our evening prayers: "Thank you God for this good food, thank you for the hands that made us." That led to a discussion of who are the hands that made us? What would it be like to be a migrant worker, which would mean that you did not have to go to school but you were not allowed to go to school either? It would mean transporting your family every few days -- there would be no access to health care. So those are issues that kids can grasp and can immediately feel that there is something wrong with this and that there is something we ought to do about it.
And I think we can encourage people -- children, people in the community -- that they actually can make a difference: whether it is going to a homeless shelter and helping to feed homeless people, or helping them get housing or helping them raise money for their work, or it's working on legislation to create change regarding the death penalty or other issues -- like police brutality and violence against women -- that we face in our country.
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KERRY KENNEDY CUOMO: Most people have been touched in one way or another by issues of injustice and they instinctively go towards those issues that affect their lives. It is not hard to do. One out of every five girls in the US is subjected to sexual assault by the time she is 21 -- one out of every five girls, one out of every seven boys. So that is one issue where it has affected -- if not someone directly -- it has certainly affected one of the members of their family or their friends. I think that it is finding a cause that moves your heart and soul--and whether that is working on child labor, where there are 250 million children around the world who have to work (instead of going to school) in terrible conditions where they suffer terribly or it is working on freedom of expression. We all saw what happened to Daniel Pearl last summer -- that happens to journalists and to writers all the time around the world. Or it is working on more local issues like police brutality. Thanks to Attorney General John Ashcroft, there is a whole slew of new civil rights issues. There is no end to the issues that we can pick up.
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KERRY KENNEDY CUOMO: People always ask, when you are dealing with torture and brutality on a daily basis, "How do you keep going?" The truth is it is not the repression that is important -- it is the resistance. Think of Martin Luther King, why do we think of him? It is the fact that he created change, he is eloquent, he had a vision of a world built on equality where people have opportunity and are judged on the contents of their character not the color of their skin. It is not until much later that you start thinking about the fact that he was imprisoned in a Birmingham jail, or that the police let German Shepherds go off on little black school children. It is not until much later that you start thinking about the brutality. I think it is the same for the human rights defenders of their countries.
KKC: I think that that is the universal quest to overcome our weaknesses and to find a sense of fulfillment. Every major religion says that we find our sense of fulfillment through love and through relationships with others and through the good that we do here on earth so it is not really a question. It is a universal quest.
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KERRY KENNEDY CUOMO: What is interesting is how many of the defenders have incredible senses of humor and that's what keeps them going in times of diversity. Asma Jahangir says that after an attack she will get together with her friends in the human rights community in Pakistan and talk about it and they have to laugh about what happened. Bruce Harris talks about when the death squad came to his office looking for him in Guatemala because he was pursuing police brutality there and they shot up his building and he called the umbrella organization that he works with in New York and told them what had happened and they immediately sent him a bullet proof vest. On the bullet proof vest there was a money-back guarantee. Laughs. So there you have it, that is funny. There are lots of ironies. The people who I work with are an optimistic lot. They are generally cheerful. It is their belief that they will succeed.
KKC: I don't think I feel that in the sense that they do. My religion is very important to me for inspiration but I don't think that there is a calling.
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KERRY KENNEDY CUOMO: If you deal with the mechanics of the situation -- well, it is the difference between the nurse and the surgeon. The surgeon is fixing the broken organ and the nurse is working with the person. That in a sense is a much more human and in many ways emotionally difficult thing. But ultimately it is the most rewarding because it enhances our understanding of one another and our empathy with one another.
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KERRY KENNEDY CUOMO: I tend to be very concrete about it. I think that I am trying to actually make a difference so when somebody gets out of prison that is a success, when a law changes, that is a success. Having a meeting to create change in a law may be part of the process but I don't think that that is a success. I think that we all have keep rolling the boulder up the hill even if it rolls down upon us. Unless you get it over that hump you are not really successful. You have got to keep trying.
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KERRY KENNEDY CUOMO: I don't feel a burden at all in doing the work that I have to do. It is not that I am saying "Oh drudgery, I have to work on human rights this morning, I would much rather be getting my nails done." This is the most extraordinary privilege, honor, and inspiration that I can imagine. And so, no I don't feel a burden of responsibility. That sensibility is shared by almost everyone I have ever known who works in the field, in the Peace Corps or in any kind of public service. They always say that they get back more than they put in. So anybody who is curious about it ought to go try it.
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