Title: Speak Truth to Power. Human Rights Defenders who are Changing Our World

Editor: Nan Richardson

Interviewer:  Kerry Kennedy Cuomo

Photographer:Eddie Adams

Summary: This book contains interviews with 49 defenders of human rights around the world.  While some are well-known Nobel Prize Laureates such as the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Elie Wiesel, most of the defenders are not well-known.  Along with each interview, there is a black and white photograph of the person that, through the talents of the photographer, Eddie Adams, speaks volumes. After I read many of the interviews, I returned to linger over the photograph.

What unites these brave individuals is the clarity of the belief that they are doing something right (with a capital “R”) and their need to effect change.  All of them champion the fight against different human rights violations ranging from children’s rights, religious freedom,  disarmament, political rights, and multinational corporate responsibility, to name only a few.

Kerry Kennedy Cuomo has been working on behalf of human rights since 1981.  She established the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights in 1987, and serves as Chair of the Amnesty International Leadership Council, and in numerous other capacities.  Ms. Cuomo best sums up this unusual and inspiring book.

In a world where there is a common lament that there are no more heroes, too often cynicism and despair are perceived as evidence of the death of moral courage. That perception is wrong. People of great valor and heart, committed to noble purpose, with long records of personal sacrifice, walk among us in every country of the world

Eddie Adams is an internationally famous photographer and is one of the most published photographers in America.

Who will like this book:  Those people interested in understanding political issues in other areas of the world, in reading about people who are making a difference, and those that wish to be inspired.

If you like this, try this: Three Cups of Tea of Greg Mortenson. Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder.

Recommended by:  Susan Z, Reference Librarian