In Our Own Best Interests: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All

From the director of Amnesty International, a provocative new argument for defending human rights The Philippines, Haiti, Rwanda, Bosnia, east Los Angeles. The nightly news brings vivid images of the mistreatment of people all over the world into our living rooms. In the secure comfort of those rooms, we may feel sympathetic, but far removed from these atrocities. "What does all this have to do with a person in east Tennessee?" is the question, from a call-in radio program listener, that prompted Bill Schulz to write this book.

Schulz provides answers with an insightful work, generously laced with compelling stories of women and men from all continents, which clearly delineates the connection between Americans' prosperity and human rights violations all over the globe. The book reveals the high cost to the U.S. military of acute political instability in Eastern Europe, the economic impact on U.S. businesses of systemic corruption in East Asia, the serious worldwide environmental hazards of nuclear fuel leaks in Russia, the imminent threat of deadly viruses spreading from Africa, and even the expensive consequences of substandard prison conditions in the United States, to name some examples. At the heart of each of these problems lies the abuse of basic human rights. Through these stories, Schulz builds a powerful case for defending our own interests by vigorously defending the human rights of people everywhere.