Episodes
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In this episode of our Sports & Rights season, we take an in-depth look at a topic we touched on in the first episode – sportswashing. We speak to journalists, human rights advocates, and academics to help unpack what this term means and why it matters. We also delve into some of the most successful examples of sportswashing, ranging from ancient Egypt right up to the present day. We examine the impact of sportswashing and raise some important questions about who bears responsibility for standing up to the authoritarian regimes that seek to use sports as a form of soft power.
Read more:
Human Rights Foundation: Celebrities & Dictators
A History of Sports and Dictators (by Karim Zidan, via Human Rights Foundation)
How the NBA got into business with an African dictator (by Mark Fainaru-Wada, via ESPN)It is time to change how we talk about Saudi sports (by Karim Zidan, via Sports Politika)
Sport & Rights Alliance
Watch:
Sports & Politics | The Struggle for Freedom, Explained (via Human Rights Foundation)
Producers: Chelsea Hedquist, Brittany Smith
Audio editor: Brittany Smith
Music: Riorr by Audiorezout
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When we first kicked off our Sports & Rights podcast season, we were in the midst of what is arguably the biggest and most beloved sporting event on the planet – the 2022 FIFA World Cup, held in Qatar. Now, we find ourselves just weeks away from the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics – the perfect time to restart our examination of the intersection of human rights and sports!
In the coming episodes, we will circle back to some of the ideas we raised in our first episode of the season. We’ll talk about sportswashing, athlete activism, the role of sports organizations in upholding and strengthening human rights. But first, we’re going to bring you something a little different and very timely: the story and struggle of a woman named Friba Rezayee.
Just last month, the Lantos Foundation had the privilege of meeting Friba at the Oslo Freedom Forum. Friba has the distinction of being Afghanistan’s first female Olympic athlete, having represented her country in the sport of judo at the 2004 Athens Olympics, just a few short years after the U.S. and its allies toppled the brutal and repressive Taliban regime. Now that the Taliban has regained power, girls and women are once again forbidden from participating in sports.
The International Olympic Committee has agreed to allow a mixed-gender team from Afghanistan compete in Paris – part of its push for the first ever “gender parity Olympics.” But Friba says this move only legitimizes the Taliban regime and uses Afghan female athletes in exile as window dressing for the Games.
Friba has started a petition calling on the IOC to ban Afghanistan from the 2024 Games. Sign it here.
Learn more about her organization: Women Leaders of Tomorrow
Read more:
Afghanistan’s First Female Olympian Calls for Games Ban, Reuters, March 21, 2024
Women Afghan athletes differ on whether Olympic ban will help their cause, CBC, April 15, 2024The Taliban and the Global Backlash Against Women’s Rights, Human Rights Watch, February 6, 2024
Opinion | The Olympics Should Stand With Afghanistan’s Women Athletes - The New York Times (nytimes.com), July 17, 2024
Watch:
Sports & Politics | The Struggle for Freedom, Explained (via Human Rights Foundation)
Producers: Chelsea Hedquist, Brittany Smith
Audio editor: Brittany Smith
Music: Riorr by Audiorezout
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Missing episodes?
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On April 11, 2024, we are re-releasing our 2021 episode “The Democracy Activist Putin Wants Dead.” There is a very somber reason for this re-release. This date marks the two-year anniversary of Vladimir Kara-Murza’s arrest and imprisonment on charges of “public dissemination of deliberately false information.” Vladimir, one of the boldest and most eloquent Russian opposition figures, committed the great “crime” of speaking out against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression on Ukraine. For speaking the truth, he is now serving a 25-year sentence in a remote and notoriously harsh penal colony. Vladimir’s health, already compromised by two nearly fatal poisonings ordered by the Kremlin, is declining. Time is running out. It is imperative for people everywhere to keep advocating for Vladimir’s release, to keep demanding that western governments intervene, to keep reminding the Putin regime that there is a cost to making dissidents into political prisoners. If we hope to hear Vladimir’s voice again one day, speaking out boldly for democracy and human rights in Russia, then we must speak boldly now in calling for his release.
This re-release features a condensed version of the episode created from two conversations that Lantos Foundation President Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett had with Vladimir in late 2020 and early 2021.
Read Vladimir Kara-Murza’s opinion pieces in The Washington Post
Vladimir Kara-Murza’s last statement to Moscow City Court
Write Vladimir a letter
The Price of Conviction podcast (produced by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights)
Russian dissident Kara-Murza moved to isolation cell in new Siberian prison (Reuters, Jan. 30, 2024)
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The Keeper’s new Sports & Rights season kicks off with something a little different – a joint episode hosted by Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett and Tim Horgan, Executive Director of the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire and host of the Global in the Granite State podcast. Katrina and Tim join forces for a dynamic conversation about the complex and often problematic ways in which the world of sports intersects and interacts with human rights issues. They cover everything from sportswashing (ancient and modern!) – including the two biggest sporting events of 2022, the Beijing Winter Olympics and the World Cup in Qatar – to the responsibility of sports federations to promote and uphold human rights, to the powerful role that athletes can play as advocates for human rights and other social issues. The episode introduces many of the topics that the Sports & Rights season will dive into more fully, with a special focus on how they play out close to home in the Granite State.
Global in the Granite State Podcast
“Could 2022 be sportswashing’s biggest year yet?”, The Guardian, January 5, 2022, by Karim Zidan
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Congressman Tom Lantos on China’s 2008 Olympic bid, C-Span, July 11, 2001
Sport & Rights Alliance
UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
Center for Sport Leadership, Virginia Commonwealth University
Producers: Chelsea Hedquist, Brittany Smith
Audio technician: Chelsea Hedquist
Audio editors: Brittany Smith, Trent Gunst
Music: Riorr by Audiorezout
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Over the past several weeks, we have watched Russia’s unprovoked attacks on the people of Ukraine with horror, outrage, and a deep sense of fear for what this will mean for freedom and democracy in Europe – and the world. We have sought out trusted experts on the situation to help us better understand what the future may hold, for both Ukraine and Russia. In this special episode of The Keeper, we share a conversation between Lantos Foundation President Katrina Lantos Swett and Pavel Khodorkovsky. Pavel is the son of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, formerly Putin’s most prominent political prisoner and now one of his most vocal critics. Pavel is the U.S. Executive Director of Project Sunrise, an initiative to deliver humanitarian aid directly to Ukraine. In this interview, he shares his unique and hard-earned insights into the conflict in Ukraine and what is happening inside Russia.
Project Sunrise
Russian Anti-War Committee
Washington Post Live: The Future of Russia – The Oligarchs with Pavel Khodorkovsky
CNN: He was Russia’s Richest Man. Hear what he has to say about Putin.
The Guardian: History demands the west deploy every legal and financial weapon against Putin
The Economist: Mikhail Khodorkovsky on how to deal with the “bandit” in the Kremlin
Vanity Fair: “The Oligarchs Are Financial Outposts in His War”: Why the West Must Ramp Up Its Campaign Against Putin’s Billionaires
The Atlantic Council: Peace in Europe ‘will not exist’ as long as Putin is in power, says Mikhail Khodorkovsky
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On the final episode of our 7-part Rule of Law season, we return to the subject of the state of the rule of law right here in America. We hear from our 2020 Lantos Human Rights Prize Laureate Bryan Stevenson, who has been a tireless advocate for applying the rule of law equally and fairly in the United States, regardless of race or economic status, as well as for dealing more honestly and openly with this country’s history of inequality. Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of the best-selling book Just Mercy, has spent more than three decades advocating on behalf of incarcerated people who have been wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced. In this episode, we hear his perspective on the difference between law and justice, how America compromises its standing as a human rights leader when it fails to confront its own human rights challenges, why mercy is as fundamental a principle as justice, and more. Listen to this powerful and inspiring conclusion to the Rule of Law season.
Equal Justice Initiative
Just Mercy (best-selling book adapted into a film)
2020 Lantos Human Rights Prize Recipient
Bryan Stevenson: From the courtroom to Hollywood (BookTube)
The Moment to Close America’s Hypocrisy Gap, by Katrina Lantos Swett (Medium)
This season of The Keeper is made possible with the generous support of Ambassador April H. Foley, the United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2006-2009.This episode of The Keeper is proudly brought to you by Shaheen & Gordon – providing full-service legal advocacy across New Hampshire & Maine since 1981. Shaheen & Gordon is dedicated to protecting people’s rights and upholding the Rule of Law.
This final episode of our Rule of Law season is also supported by John & Patricia Broderick.
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On this season of The Keeper, we’ve heard harrowing first-hand accounts of what happens in a country when its government or leaders choose to disregard the rule of law; freedom, justice and human rights all tend to be casualties. Oftentimes, the oppressors and abusers face few consequences for their actions…but not always. When it comes to the worst of the worst crimes, there is an international instrument for accountability – the International Criminal Court, or the ICC. It is the first and only permanent international court with the legal jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. In this episode, we speak with Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, who recently finished his term as ICC President after serving on the Court for nearly a decade. We cover the origins of the ICC, its complicated and often fraught relationship with the U.S., criticisms of the Court and points of deep controversy over which countries it chooses to investigate – or not investigate – but also Judge Eboe-Osuji’s fundamental belief in the Court’s power to “loosen the grip of tyranny in our time”.
International Criminal Court
Farewell Message of ICC President Chile Eboe-Osuji
Third Annual Lantos Rule of Law Lecture with Judge President Eboe-Osuji
I.C.C. Won’t Investigate China’s Detention of Muslims (New York Times)
The United States Opposes the ICC Investigation into the Palestinian Situation
This season of The Keeper was made possible with the generous support of Ambassador April H. Foley, who served as the United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2006 -2009.
This episode is supported by former Congressman Herb Klein of New Jersey and by Jim Gottstein, author of The Zyprexa Papers. -
For the fifth episode of our Rule of Law Season, we speak with journalist and author Anjan Sundaram to help us understand what is happening with the rule of law in Rwanda. The country is often held up as a democratic success story in Africa, as it has achieved stability and prosperity over the last 25 years since the horrific genocide of 1994. But Anjan explains that the real story is very different, and he speaks from very personal experience. He moved to Kigali, Rwanda in 2009 and began teaching journalism to Rwandan reporters – and then, one by one, his students began to run into a series of misfortunes that couldn’t have been mere coincidence. Anjan came to realize that he was witnessing the fall of free speech and the rise of President Paul Kagame’s dictatorship in Rwanda. Anjan speaks about the impact of Kagame’s authoritarian regime on the everyday lives of Rwandans, the brazen ways in which he stifles any dissent, and how western countries have actually emboldened Kagame to consolidate his power. He also discusses the Rwandan government’s kidnapping of human rights hero Paul Rusesabagina and the show trial he faces in Kigali, and he explains what it will mean for any critics of President Kagame going forward.
Anjan Sundaram Official Website
“Rwanda’s Rendition of a Hollywood Hero Confirms the Country’s Descent into Dictatorship”, by Anjan Sundaram in Foreign Policy
“I Think I May Die Tonight”, excerpt from Bad News by Anjan Sundaram in Foreign Policy
Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship by Anjan Sundaram
YouTube: Rwanda paid for the flight that led to Paul Rusesabagina arrest – UpFront
The Daily: A Battle for the Soul of Rwanda
A Tribute to Paul Rusesabagina by Congressman Tom Lantos (July 25, 2005)
Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation - #FreeRusesabagina
This season of The Keeper was made possible with the generous support of Ambassador April H. Foley, who served as the United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2006 -2009.
This episode is also supported by four distinguished professors from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law:Professor John Greabe, Director of the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership & Public Service.
Professor Albert “Buzz” Scherr, Chair of the International Criminal Law and Justice Program and former Director of the State Department Rule of Law Project in Northern Russia.
Professor Robert E. McDaniel, a former U.S. Federal Prosecutor in Washington, DC, former Head of Legal Affairs for the OSCE in the Republic of Kosovo and now a faculty member in the International Criminal Law and Justice Program.
Judge Arthur Gajarsa, who joined the faculty as Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence after retiring from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
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Vladimir Kara-Murza has spent the better part of the last two decades fighting for the rule of law in Russia as a journalist, filmmaker and opposition politician. But in Putin’s Russia, this is a very dangerous line of work. Not once, but twice, he has been the victim of a poison attack and barely escaped with his life. Just last weekend, he was arrested and detained by the Russian government during a meeting of independent and opposition politicians. These are all clear signs of the total lack of rule of law in Russia, but Vladimir continues to press bravely forward in his work advocating for democracy. In this episode, we talk about the change that Vladimir sees coming to Russia, what it will take to eventually end Putin’s reign, and the outlook for a post-Putin Russia.
This episode is supported by former Congressman Don Bonker.Read Vladimir Kara-Murza’s opinion pieces in The Washington Post
Bellingcat Investigation into Vladimir Kara-Murza’s Suspected Poisonings
Putin’s Palace YouTube documentary
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In this episode, we focus on a part of the world that has become one of the front lines of the fight to uphold the Rule of Law – Hong Kong. In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has been imposing increasingly strict measures on the once autonomous and democratic Hong Kong, designed to erode that autonomy. The response has not come from the powerful or well-connected members of Hong Kong society, but from the vibrant, beating heart of Hong Kong: its youth. Nathan Law, who became the youngest lawmaker ever elected to the Hong Kong Legislative Council in 2016, has emerged as one of the most recognizable and respected voices on the Hong Kong democracy movement. He spoke to us from the UK, where he is now living in exile, about China’s spreading authoritarianism, the global importance of Hong Kong’s struggle for freedom and autonomy, and his optimism that democracy will prevail in the end.
This episode is sponsored by John and Judith Ransmeier and brought to you by Sheehan Phinney Law Firm, the business law firm.Nathan Law – The Magnitsky Human Rights Award
Give Hong Kong the Autonomy It Was Promised, Nathan Law in The New York Times
Mr. Biden, Keep the Pressure on Hong Kong, Nathan Law in The New York Times
No More Waiting: The Time Has Come to Fight for Hong Kong, Katrina Lantos Swett in The Hill
Lantos Foundation advocacy for Joshua Wong and Agnes ChowInterview with Joshua Wong on The Keeper
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On the first episode of this Rule of Law season, we talked about the rule of law as a “a government of laws and not men”. Our guest on this episode, Professor Irwin Cotler, has his own shorthand for the rule of law: “the pursuit of justice”. If anyone in this world is intimately familiar with the tireless, unrelenting, undaunted pursuit of justice, it is Irwin Cotler – an accomplished academic, renowned international human rights lawyer, former Member of Parliament in Canada, as well as former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Founder and Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and currently Canada’s first ever Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Anti-Semitism. In this episode, we discuss his four decades of serving as counsel for some of the world’s most prominent dissidents and political prisoners of conscience, as well as what he sees as worrying signs of a global resurgence in authoritarianism.
This episode of The Keeper is supported by Elaine and Jared Genser, and Jim Gottstein, author of The Zyprexa Papers.Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights
For Irwin Cotler, neither a pandemic nor retirement from politics can slow his fight for human rights (The Globe and Mail)
Irwin Cotler named special envoy for Holocaust remembrance and the fight against anti-Semitism (CBC)
Irwin Cotler speaks at the 2012 Oslo Freedom Forum
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This episode kicks off our new season, where we will be exploring the significance of three simple words: Rule of Law. But what does that phrase actually mean? Is it an abstraction? An impossible ideal? Or something real and practical that holds democratic societies together? To help answer these questions and more, we spoke to one of America’s preeminent legal scholars on the rule of law, Professor Harold Koh.
Professor Koh is the Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School and one of the Lantos Foundation’s Rule of Law lecturers. In addition to his legal scholarship, he has served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and as the legal adviser of the State Department. In this episode, we cover everything from what the rule of law means, to where we see it being violated in the world, to how we can best preserve and uphold it at home in America.
Harold Koh Biography
Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic
2018 Lantos Rule of Law Lecture
United Nations and the Rule of Law
World Justice Project – What is the Rule of Law
American Bar Association – Rule of Law
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The new season of The Keeper will focus on three simple, but powerful, words: Rule of Law. When we decided to make this the focus of our season, we never imagined that the start of 2021 would bring this concept to the very forefront of public discourse. From the arrest of Alexey Navalny and mass protests in Russia, to China's brutal crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong, to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, there has never been a more important time to understand and commit to the rule of law.
But what does that phrase even mean? In the coming episodes, Katrina Lantos Swett, host of The Keeper, will speak with some of the world's most brilliant legal scholars and human rights leaders, people like Irwin Cotler and Professor Harold Koh, to understand why the rule of law matters so much to building free and just societies. She will also speak with activists and dissidents from around the world, like Nathan Law and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who are bravely fighting for their countries to uphold the rule of law.
Join us for our Rule of Law Season as we grapple with what the rule of law means, what happens – especially to human rights – when it is cast aside, and how we can work to preserve it, at home in America and around the globe.
The season launches in February, so stay tuned! -
The final episode of this special Solidarity Sabbath season on anti-Semitism is being released on World Humanitarian Day. The United Nations calls this day a global celebration of people helping people. There are numerous examples of humanitarians throughout history who have given so much of themselves to fight anti-Semitism or to protect the Jewish people. But not every humanitarian’s contribution to the world is grand or dramatic. Sometimes, humanitarians accomplish great and lasting service to humanity through small and simple acts. This episode offers the story of one such humanitarian – a German woman, Irmela Mensah-Schramm, who has quietly taken it upon herself to remove, erase or cover up every pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic sticker, poster or graffiti that she comes across. There is no organization backing her, no funding from any government agency – just a decent, good humored, brave woman with a bucket, a scraper and an inner moral compass that we should all seek to emulate. Irmela, who is a grantee of the Lantos Foundation’s Front Line Fund, exemplifies the words of Stephen Grellet, a Quaker missionary from the late 1700s, who wrote, “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.”
Front Line Fund
Meet the 71-year-old “Graffiti Grandma” Scrubbing Away Hate (Great Big Story)
Anti-Nazi ‘Graffiti Grandma’ Fined After Painting Over Nazi Tag (DW)
World Humanitarian Day (United Nations)
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This episode, the fourth in the special Solidarity Sabbath season, takes a deeper look at an area where anti-Semitism, and hate of all forms, is spreading in alarming ways – the internet. Katrina Lantos Swett speaks with Yigal Carmon, President and co-founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). For more than two decades, MEMRI has done ground-breaking work, researching the most disturbing examples of extreme anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Arabic-, Farsi- and Urdu-speaking world. While much of MEMRI’s work in the past focused on analysis of media outlets, textbooks, religious sermons and similar kinds of communication, MEMRI is increasingly seeing the internet as the major vector of hate speech against Jews and many other minority groups. This raises vexing questions about who should be held responsible for allowing such hate to spread online unchecked.
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
The Hater Next Door: Online Incitement Against Minorities in America
Department of Justice’s Review of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
Hard Questions: Who Should Decide What is Hate Speech in an Online Global Community? (Facebook)
Trump and Biden both want to revoke Section 230, but for different reasons (Business Insider)
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The Holocaust, or Shoah in Hebrew, refers to the World War II genocide of 6 million European Jews. This was unequivocally the most extreme and horrific example of anti-Semitism the world has ever seen. Yet, somehow Jewish survivors of this atrocity, including the Lantos Foundation’s namesake Tom Lantos, were able to emerge from this dark time with their spirits unbroken and with a deep sense of their responsibility to ensure that such horrors never happen again. In this episode, podcast host and Lantos Foundation President Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett speaks with two Holocaust survivors about their experiences during WWII and how they shaped the rest of their lives.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
USC Shoah Foundation
New Hampshire Governor Sununu signs genocide education bill
Maloney’s Never Again Education Act Signed into Law
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Episode 11 of The Keeper, and the second episode of our Solidarity Sabbath season, will bring you into the 21st century of anti-Semitism with a conversation with the United States’ top diplomat tasked with combating anti-Semitism. Elan Carr, the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, joins Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett to speak about his work in the fight against anti-Semitism – what keeps him up at night, and what encourages him and gives him hope for the future.
Links:
Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
Defining Anti-Semitism
Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism
The Hater Next Door report
“Commit to Fighting the Hater Next Door”, The Hill Op-ed by Yigal Carmon and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett
German Parliament Deems B.D.S. Movement Anti-Semitic
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In the first episode of the Lantos Foundation’s special Solidarity Sabbath podcast season, we take a deeper look at the origins and history of Anti-Semitism. It is often called “an ancient hatred” or “the oldest hatred”. We ask David Nirenberg, Dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School, just how far back does it really go? Why has it been so enduring across time, geography, religion, culture, politics – even in places where no actual Jews live? This episode provides context for what will be a special season devoted exclusively to the subject of anti-Semitism and how we can combat it.
Links:
Plot Against America trailer
Defining Anti-Semitism
A Brief History of Anti-Semitism (Anti-Defamation League)
Viral trailer
David Nirenberg
How Anti-Semitism rise on the left and right (New Yorker)
Seventy-five years after Auschwitz, anti-Semitism is on the rise (The Atlantic) -
The Keeper podcast is back – this time with something new and a little different! Like so many other things, plans for the Lantos Foundation’s annual religious freedom initiative – the Solidarity Sabbath – fell victim to the COVID-19 outbreak this year. The Solidarity Sabbath usually offers a chance to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a persecuted or oppressed religious community. In a time of social distancing, we’re standing virtually with the Jewish community all over the world as we bring you an entire season of The Keeper focused exclusively on anti-Semitism. The season will do a deep dive on this ancient hatred and will feature guests like Elan Carr, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Yigal Carmon, President of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), David Nirenberg, Dean of The University of Chicago Divinity School, and others. Episodes will be released beginning in late June – make sure to subscribe through iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts so you don’t miss them.
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We were thrilled to be joined by Ensaf Haidar, the wife of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi. Raif’s unjust imprisonment and lashing has become an international human rights cause, thanks in no small measure to the tireless efforts of Ensaf. She has become the face of the movement to free Raif. Despite all of Ensaf’s apparent physical daintiness, there can be no mistaking her strength and determination when it comes to leading the fight to free her husband.
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