The International Commission of Jurists: Global Advocates for Human Rights

11. Turning Forty

Chapter 11 Turning Forty While the world has changed, the essential mission of the IC]-to promote the rule of law and the legal protection of human rights-has not changed. As walls which keep people in are replaced by walls that keep people out, as the rivalry between East and West is replaced by conflict between North and South, the role of the IC] becomes even more vital. -IC] Secretary-General Adama Dieng ' Public interest groups have a high infant mortality rate and short life expectancy. More than three-thousand international NGOs have dissolved or become inactive." Long after most other nineteenth-century organizations passed away, the government-supported International Red Cross prospered as an exception. Unable to secure permanent funding, many groups die with the entrepreneurs who created and controlled them. The IC] belongs to the first generation of human rights NGOs. In 1970 the bankrupt adolescent found new leadership. Approaching forty, a stalled IC] saw its offspring and new groups flourish. After twenty years as Secretary-General, MacDermot was seventy-three and in failing health. William Butler, Executive Committee chairman since 1976, faced mandatory retirement in 1990 under the IC] Statute . Both leaders were reluctant to step down. MacDermot proposed a partial retirement that would enable him to continue editing IC] publications. Butler recommended an amendment to the Statute so he could continue to chair the Executive Committee. Fiscally cautious after lean years when he had cut his own salary, MacDermot resisted staff proposals for expansion. Butler competed with difficulty against 244 Chapter 11 other human rights NGOs for U.S. foundation grants. Thoroughly committed, both felt the ICJ needed their considerable experience; new leaders with the requisite skill, commitment, and status would be difficult to find. The ICJ's unique character depended on careful selection from an exclusive elite. Mobilizing Resources for a New Order Secretary-General The search for MacDermot's successor began with Theo van Boven. A hero to NGO activists, van Boven had used his director's post at the U.N. Human Rights Division as a bully pulpit. After publicly criticizing governments that killed their own citizens, he was ousted. Van Boven also knew the Geneva scene well through membership on the U.N. Sub-Commission. He negotiated with Butler for a year before declining the position. The Ford Foundation helped and the ICJ offered 30 percent more than MacDermot's salary. The pay was still not competitive, and shaky finances would mean major fund raising. Van Boven would have lost faculty tenure, a university pension, and health benefits at the age of fifty-four. Unlike MacDermot, whose spouse worked in Geneva, family discouraged van Boven from relocating away from home. Before van Boven rejected the post, MacDermot announced his retirement for June 1990. Legal officer Adama Dieng served a year as Executive Secretary and then became Acting Secretary-General. After interviewing Swedish ombudsman Peter Nobel and six others, the Executive Committee broke new ground on race, age, language, and status. The ICJ named Adama Dieng Secretary-General in October 1990. The forty-year-old Senegalese jurist preferred French to English and had more experience in international than national institutions . Like the two senior English-speaking cabinet ministers who preceded him, Dieng has a commanding physical presence valued in international diplomacy. During nearly ten years in the ICJ's Geneva Secretariat he had developed both an eloquent passion for the cause and excellent connections, especially in Africa. He had remained at the ICJ after receiving offers from the ICRC and Amnesty International ." The elitist jurist's appointment of a young African leader signaled major third world influence in a human rights network dominated by Westerners. Within two years Senegalese nationals had also been appointed as directors of the U.N. Centre on Human Rights and Amnesty International. Turning Forty 245 Adama Dieng of Senegal was promoted to Ie] Secretary-General in 1990, after service as legal officer for Africa. Dieng worked to revitalize and redirect the IC] before its fortieth anniversary. The resulting changes confirm anew the impact of staff in public interest groups. Dieng promoted CI]L director Reed Brody to Executive Secretary; together they prepared a planning document, "Strategies for the Future," and held a brainstorming session with expert consultants. The Executive Committee authorized staff to embark on major expansion before the 1992 IC] meeting approved a draft plan of action. 246 Chapter 11 Finances Agencies reassured about...