Any book project, particularly an edited volume of this scope and ambition, has a cast of characters to thank. First and foremost is the Ford Foundation for their belief in and support for the project, and particularly Otto Saki for his advice and patience throughout the process. That patience became particularly important when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down travel and in-person work just as we were beginning to pull the project together. We had planned a series of author workshops in 2020 and 2021, but these obviously became impossible during the lockdown. Instead, like much of the world, we got by on Zoom, first for the discussions with our reviewers and later for two workshops we conducted—one with young leaders associated with Chatham House (in part through our Common Future Conversation project and the South African Institute of International Affairs), and another with activists.
From the beginning Caroline Soper, editor of the Chatham House/Brookings Institution Press Insights book series, helped shepherd the project along, keeping us all on track, coordinating between reviewers, copyeditors, and the Brookings Institution, and generally being a tough—but fair—taskmaster. Kerstin Bree Carlson (Roskilde University) and Bronwyn Leebow (University of California, Riverside) provided valuable perceptivity and thorough comments on all the chapters, of course all via Zoom. (It was Kerstin who urged me to move the discussion of the young leaders to the front of the book, saying “You’re burying the lead!” She was right.) I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewer who provided both constructively critical comments and encouragement for the book and its conclusions. Whoever you are, thank you.
At Chatham House there are a number of people to thank. Rose Abdollahzadeh first suggested the book be part of the Insights series and introduced me to Caroline and to Amanda Moss, who helped ease the process and kept it moving forward. Renata Dwan recommended two of the authors for the chapters and chaired the early workshop with the authors. Anar Bata and Courtney Rice were closely involved with this project at various stages of the two-year process; but one of their most important contributions was keeping in order all the different drafts of chapters we had floating around. And last but not least, Margaret May was an excellent and dogged copyeditor, catching grammatical errors, questionable word choices, and incomplete references large and small.
William Finan, Director of the Brookings Institution Press, our Insights publishing partner, was a welcoming and encouraging editor. Our thanks to him and his publishing team at Brookings.
The participants in the two invaluable workshops mentioned above deserve special acknowledgment. The young leaders, brought together by Martina Carlucci, Nairomi Eriksson, and Ben Horton of Chatham House, and Steve Gruzd of the South African Institute of International Affairs, were an impressive group of students and young professionals who willingly gave their time to share their views on human rights. They included Hafsa Ali, Michel Alimasi, Tessa Dooms, Giuseppe Grieco, Mohamed Hachem, Leyla Helvaci, Amira Ismail, Gift Jedida, Salome Nzuki, Samantha Potter, Oliver Taylor, Sanne Thijssen, Mondher Tounsi, Araminta Watson, and Sophie Zinser. Since this book is intended to provide practical recommendations, the second workshop was conducted as we were wrapping up our drafts. Ana Lankes, Anar Bata, and Courtney Rice convened a diverse group of human rights activists from around the world: Peace Oliver Amuge, Nicholas Bequelin, Edmund Foley, Rez Gardi, Kumaravdivel Guruparan, Mateo Jarquín, Omer Kanat, Leanne Macmillan, Rahima Mahmut, Jacqueline Rowe, Changrok Soh, José Miguel Vivanco, Marta Welander, and Sarah Whitson. Their spirited, passionate comments and reflections on their experiences helped us think through our analyses and better hone our recommendations to policymakers, academics, and activists to bolster and improve international human rights today. More than anything, they reminded us of the human impact of our project.
Many of the authors—myself included—asked friends and colleagues to review early drafts of chapters. For their time and thoughtful comments, we would particularly like to thank Nicholas Bequelin, Daniel Cerqueira, Carl Conetta, Ariel Dultizky, Kate Jones, Emily Kent, Ana Lankes, and Harriet Moynihan.
Finally, my thanks more generally to Chatham House for its support of this project. It has been an honor to pull together this book under its auspices.
Christopher Sabatini