It’s time to tackle human rights fraud
Michael Rubin
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On May 12, 2014, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested former Liberian Defense Minister Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu as he arrived at Newark International Airport on immigration fraud and perjury charges. Switzerland-based human rights group Civitas Maxima monitored the trial and, behind the scenes, contributed to the prosecution. On July 13, 2018, a federal court found him guilty on 11 counts. “The jury heard testimony about NPFL soldiers cutting off victims’ body parts in front of Woewiyu,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania press release reported upon his conviction. There would be no appeal. Woewiyu died while awaiting sentencing.
Much of the testimony targeting Woewiyu for personal involvement in war crimes today appears fabricated.
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While Civitas Maxima cloaked itself in the mantle of human rights advocacy, evidence now suggests the group and its Swiss Executive Director Alain Werner engaged in an elaborate fraud and shakedown scam. Courts across Europe and Africa are scrambling to reexamine cases in which Civitas Maxima or their local Liberian partner Global Justice and Research Project contributed false affidavits and coached witnesses. In 2016, Belgian courts released alleged war criminal Martina Johnson from prison pretrial due to concerns about Civitas Maxima-provided witnesses. The court’s actions came too late for American Michel Desaedeleer, who committed suicide in prison after Belgian police arrested him for slavery on evidence subsequently exposed as fraudulent.
In 2017, British authorities arrested Agnes Reeves Taylor for alleged torture. They released her after 27 months in solitary confinement and without ever trying her when the information provided by Werner and his Liberian partner Hassan Bility was proven false. Just last year, it was deja vu in Finland, where alleged witnesses alleged Civitas and its partners coached them and falsified claims.
Despite its record, Civitas International and Werner have collected millions of dollars in grants from the United Nations, the Washington, D.C.-based Humanity United (whose funder leftist philanthropist Pierre Omidyar also supported the Intercept), the Geneva-based Oak Foundation, and the London-based Sigrid Rausing Trust. Human rights can be a lucrative business.
The Civitas International fraud is just the tip of the iceberg. While diplomats and activists celebrated the release from prison of “Hotel Rwanda” figure Paul Rusesabagina, troubling facts remain: He directed donations to his own self-described human rights and charitable foundation but has never released a financial accounting. The basis for his conviction is not in dispute, however: the diversion of funds to a Burundi-based terror group. For Rusesabagina, who harbored his own political ambitions, a human rights group simply seemed a convenient, even if deceptive, platform.
Rusesabagina was not alone in creating a human rights group for deceptive reasons. In 2004, Qatari national Abd al Rahman bin Umayr al Nuaimi founded Alkarama, “an NGO defending the victims of human rights violations in the Arab world.” Human Rights Watch embraced its reporting. The only problem? Al Nuaimi was also, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, an al Qaeda financier. Once again, a human rights organization simply provided cover for other agendas.
The list goes on. Last week, Amnesty International issued a report alleging war crimes in the Horn of Africa. Rather than assign the report to an objective observer, Amnesty’s East Africa office appointed an author with ties to one side of the conflict. Not surprisingly, he proceeded to talk only to one side and did not fact-check. Such procedural errors also undermine Amnesty’s Iran work.
Civitas Maxima may be an extreme case, as its reports polluted court proceedings in the United States, Europe, and Africa, but it is not alone. From vanity groups such as Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation to political advocacy groups such as Alkarama to big-name legacies such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, political, procedural, and financial fraud is a growing problem.
Human rights advocacy sounds lofty, but in practice, political agendas and outright greed now threaten an entire industry at a time when objective human rights monitoring has never been more important.
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Michael Rubin (@mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.