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| Jemera Rone, Investigator Who Bared Human Rights Abuses, Dies at 71 | Jemera Rone, Investigator Who Bared Human Rights Abuses, Dies at 71 |
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| Jemera Rone, who abandoned a legal career on Wall Street in her 40s to focus instead on exposing and redressing human rights violations in El Salvador and Sudan, died on July 29 in Washington. She was 71. | |
| The cause was ovarian cancer, said Nancy Stanley, a friend and former law partner. | The cause was ovarian cancer, said Nancy Stanley, a friend and former law partner. |
| Ms. Rone had been a partner at one of the nation’s few law firms devoted to women’s rights and afterward an associate at one of Wall Street’s most powerful deal makers, the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, when she gave up high finance to investigate allegations of human rights abuses on behalf of people who had variously been uprooted, silenced, brutalized, enslaved or killed in war and political upheaval. | |
| As counsel for Human Rights Watch from 1985 to 2006, Ms. Rone opened the organization’s first foreign field office, in El Salvador, and was among the first investigators to document violations of international humanitarian law. | As counsel for Human Rights Watch from 1985 to 2006, Ms. Rone opened the organization’s first foreign field office, in El Salvador, and was among the first investigators to document violations of international humanitarian law. |
| She lived in El Salvador full time during the country’s civil war, challenging Washington’s version of events in Latin America. | She lived in El Salvador full time during the country’s civil war, challenging Washington’s version of events in Latin America. |
| In 1985, reporting on the civil war in Nicaragua for Americas Watch, Ms. Rone said that while the Marxist Sandinistas were indeed guilty of human rights abuses and censorship, “around that core of fact, however, U.S. officials have built an edifice of innuendo and exaggeration” to justify Washington’s support for rebels fighting the Sandinistas’ revolutionary government. | In 1985, reporting on the civil war in Nicaragua for Americas Watch, Ms. Rone said that while the Marxist Sandinistas were indeed guilty of human rights abuses and censorship, “around that core of fact, however, U.S. officials have built an edifice of innuendo and exaggeration” to justify Washington’s support for rebels fighting the Sandinistas’ revolutionary government. |
| “The State Department was never as furious with us as when we published that particular report,” Aryeh Neier, then the vice chairman of Americas Watch (which was later incorporated into Human Rights Watch), was quoted as saying in Mother Jones magazine in 1988. | “The State Department was never as furious with us as when we published that particular report,” Aryeh Neier, then the vice chairman of Americas Watch (which was later incorporated into Human Rights Watch), was quoted as saying in Mother Jones magazine in 1988. |
| Leslie Lefkow, the current deputy director of the rights organization’s Africa division, said Ms. Rone’s research “survived the intense scrutiny of the Reagan administration, which was backing the abusive Salvadoran government, and her reporting on rebel abuses as well highlighted Human Rights Watch’s impartiality.” | Leslie Lefkow, the current deputy director of the rights organization’s Africa division, said Ms. Rone’s research “survived the intense scrutiny of the Reagan administration, which was backing the abusive Salvadoran government, and her reporting on rebel abuses as well highlighted Human Rights Watch’s impartiality.” |
| In Sudan, beginning in 1993, Ms. Rone revealed the toll of the civil war between Sudanese soldiers allied with Muslim militias in the north and African insurgents in the south. She also tied the 1998 famine in Bahr el Ghazal to systemic human rights abuses, and attributed rights violations and the vast displacement of people to unimpeded oil exploration in the Upper Nile region in what is now South Sudan, which gained its independence in 2011. | In Sudan, beginning in 1993, Ms. Rone revealed the toll of the civil war between Sudanese soldiers allied with Muslim militias in the north and African insurgents in the south. She also tied the 1998 famine in Bahr el Ghazal to systemic human rights abuses, and attributed rights violations and the vast displacement of people to unimpeded oil exploration in the Upper Nile region in what is now South Sudan, which gained its independence in 2011. |
| “With the help of revenues from the oil companies,” Ms. Rone said in a 2004 report, “the regime has acquired weapons used in the mass killings in Darfur.” | “With the help of revenues from the oil companies,” Ms. Rone said in a 2004 report, “the regime has acquired weapons used in the mass killings in Darfur.” |
| A 1994 report by her team, titled “Civilian Devastation,” estimated that the civil war in southern Sudan had already claimed the lives of 1.3 million civilians. “All parties have waged war in total disregard of the welfare of the civilian population and in violation of almost every rule of war applicable in an internal armed conflict,” the nearly 300-page report concluded. | A 1994 report by her team, titled “Civilian Devastation,” estimated that the civil war in southern Sudan had already claimed the lives of 1.3 million civilians. “All parties have waged war in total disregard of the welfare of the civilian population and in violation of almost every rule of war applicable in an internal armed conflict,” the nearly 300-page report concluded. |
| She found that Sudanese soldiers and Muslim militias armed by the government had transported captured rebels to the north, where they were enslaved. “It’s war booty,” she said. | She found that Sudanese soldiers and Muslim militias armed by the government had transported captured rebels to the north, where they were enslaved. “It’s war booty,” she said. |
| In 2005, Ms. Rone reached similar conclusions in Uganda, blaming the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army for “atrocious crimes” against civilians, while the undisciplined Ugandan Army “committed crimes against civilians, the very people they are supposed to protect, with near-total impunity.” | In 2005, Ms. Rone reached similar conclusions in Uganda, blaming the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army for “atrocious crimes” against civilians, while the undisciplined Ugandan Army “committed crimes against civilians, the very people they are supposed to protect, with near-total impunity.” |
| The Ugandan government ordered her to leave the country. | The Ugandan government ordered her to leave the country. |
| “Find new ways of expressing your outrage,” she urged readers in 2005 in an online discussion in The Washington Post about the war in Darfur. “Be creative. Don’t stop. And remember, solutions are not easy or fast, but for that reason it is all the more necessary to stay involved and not give up hope.” | “Find new ways of expressing your outrage,” she urged readers in 2005 in an online discussion in The Washington Post about the war in Darfur. “Be creative. Don’t stop. And remember, solutions are not easy or fast, but for that reason it is all the more necessary to stay involved and not give up hope.” |
| Jemera Frances Rone was born on March 13, 1944, in Fort Worth. She grew up there and in Oklahoma and Venezuela, where her father, James, worked in the oil industry. Her mother was the former Jean Johnson. | Jemera Frances Rone was born on March 13, 1944, in Fort Worth. She grew up there and in Oklahoma and Venezuela, where her father, James, worked in the oil industry. Her mother was the former Jean Johnson. |
| Ms. Rone graduated from Barnard College in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish literature and economics. She then joined the Congress of Racial Equality and, in 1974, earned a law degree from Rutgers. | Ms. Rone graduated from Barnard College in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish literature and economics. She then joined the Congress of Racial Equality and, in 1974, earned a law degree from Rutgers. |
| She went on to become a partner in Blank, Goodman, Rone & Stanley, a women’s rights law firm that operated in New York for four years, until 1977. She was an associate at Skadden, Arps from 1977 to 1985. | |
| Her interest in doing “something more worthwhile” than corporate law and returning “to a Latin environment,” she said, was piqued in 1984 by a visit to El Salvador with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. | |
| She retired in 2006 after an automobile accident. | She retired in 2006 after an automobile accident. |
| Her marriage to Michael L. Flug ended in divorce. She is survived by her sister, Janice Rone. | Her marriage to Michael L. Flug ended in divorce. She is survived by her sister, Janice Rone. |