Listen to Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, discuss his recent Foreign Affairs article, "Empty Promises? Obama's Hesitant Embrace of Human Rights," with students as part of CFR's Academic Conference Call series.

Learn more about CFR's Academic Initiative.

U.S. President Barack Obama has vocally promoted a human rights agenda. Now, his administration must translate his rhetoric into practice.

Kenneth Roth answers questions submitted by readers about President Barack Obama's plans to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay.

President Barack Obama plans to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The United States should move the prisoners currently held there into the criminal justice system and hold trials as soon as possible.

The U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay has become a stain on the United States' reputation. Shutting it down will cause new problems. Rather than hold terrorism suspects in preventive detention, the United States should turn them over to its criminal justice system.

This audio includes readings of selected articles from the May/June 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs.

From the May/June 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs: Shutting down Guantánamo will cause new problems. Rather than hold the terrorism suspects, the United States should turn them over to its criminal justice system.

First published in the Jerusalem Post, Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch discusses the indiscriminate bombardment in Lebanon during the summer of 2006.

Abraham D. Sofaer, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, discuss the merits of capital punishment in trying dictators and other war criminals in this CFR Online Debate.

Backed by strong international support, the formation of a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) will soon replace the use of ad hoc tribunals such as those for Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The United States, originally a proponent of the ICC treaty negotiated in Rome in 1998, now stands with the small minority opposing the ICC. With the court likely to come into existence, the terms of U.S. participation in the treaty are now a vital question.

By blocking international treaties banning land mines and child soldiers, the United States has become an obstacle to the advancement of human rights law.