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Jeri Laber (born 1931) is one of the founders of
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
, the largest human rights organization in the United States. She is the author and/or editor of dozens of Human Rights Watch reports and more than 100 articles on human rights issues published in The New York Time

The New York Review of Book

and many other publications. Her memoir ''"The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age with the Human Rights Movement"'' was published in 2002 by Public Affair

She is co-author, with Barnett Rubin, of ''"A Nation is Dying: Afghanistan Under the Soviets,"'' Northwestern University Press. Her novel, "The Russian Key," was published by Arcade in 202

In the course of her human rights work, Laber made many fact-finding trips to the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Turkey and the Tribal Areas of Pakistan where she interviewed Afghan refugees. She offered friendship and moral support to dissidents in the former Communist countries, many of whom, after 1989, became the leaders of their newly democratic countries. Laber was active in the early development of the human rights movement. She served as Executive Director of Helsinki Watch (which became Human Rights Watch) from 1978–1995 and then as Senior Adviser to Human Rights Watch until 2000. She was a founder of the International Helsinki Federation in 1983 and was its Vice-Chair for many years. She served as a consultant to the International Freedom to Publish Committee of the Association of American Publishers from 1977 to 2010. Early in her career, Laber worked as Foreign Editor of ''The Current Digest of the Soviet Press'' and then as Publications Director of the Institute for the Study of the USSR. As a free-lance writer during the 1970s, she co-authored, with Molly Finn, ''Cooking for Carefree Weekends,'' Simon & Schuster, 1975, and co-edited, with Marion Cunningham, ''The Fannie Farmer Cookbook,'' Knopf, 1979. In 1977, she reviewed restaurants for the Connecticut supplement to the ''New York Times.''


Awards and honors

In 2000 Jeri Laber was honored by President
Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...
of the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
who presented her with his country's Medal of Merit. In 2002 she testified against President Slobodan Milosevic at his war crimes trial in The Hague. In 2003 she was named Alumna of the Year by the Harriman Institute of
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
. The Association of American Publishers has named an award in her honor: The Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award. Ms Laber is the recipient of a research and writing grant from the MacArthur Foundation. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the New York City Council on Foreign Relations. She was a Board Member of PEN America from 2012-2018 and its Vice-President from 2013-2015.


Education

Laber was educated in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. She completed her undergraduate work at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, majoring in English and Philosophy. She did her graduate work at Columbia University, working simultaneously in the Russian Institute and the Department of Slavic Languages. Her graduate thesis was on "The Post-War Conception of Socialist Realism."


Personal

She was married to Austin Laber, an attorney, from 1954-1982. In 1994 she married Charles Kuskin, oboist and composer, who died in 2015. She has three married daughters, two married stepchildren, eleven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.


References


The New York Review of BooksPublic AffairsHuman Rights WatchAssociation of American Publishers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laber, Jeri American activists Writers from New York (state) New York University alumni Columbia University alumni Living people 1931 births Memoirists from New York (state)