Kennedy Cuomo hails human rights heroes in book

Kerry Kennedy Cuomo's book "Speak Truth to Power" includes interviews of 51 human rights defenders along with photographs by Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Just as her famous father, Sen. Robert Kennedy, did in the 1960s, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo is carrying a torch for human rights, publishing a book this month hailing the courage of those who fight against injustice.

Called "Speak Truth to Power," the coffee table book tells the stories of 51 human rights defenders who have stood up to brutal governments, been threatened with imprisonment, tortured and faced death because of their convictions.

The interviews, accompanied by dramatic black-and-white portraits by Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams, provide an insight into what gives people the will to fight against human rights abuses, Kennedy Cuomo said.

While many of those interviewed are famous -- the Dalai Lama, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel -- Kennedy Cuomo also included activists who are heroes only in their own communities.

"The book is really about courage. I wanted people to speak specifically about those qualities and their fear and how they overcome that fear to do what they do," Kennedy Cuomo, whose uncle John F. Kennedy wrote bestseller "Profiles in Courage" before he became president, told Reuters in an interview.

"I think that all of us are endowed with courage and love and charity and generosity, and that's who we are at our very best," she added.

Kennedy Cuomo hopes the book, which covers abuses from sexual slavery in Ghana and police brutality in the United States to torture in Turkey, will inspire others to perform courageous deeds. "I hope people will find that gift inside themselves and say, 'I can do something too."'

Accompanying the book is a photographic exhibition that opens at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington this month, and celebrated playwright and former political prisoner Ariel Dorfman has written a play based on the book.

The play, which stars Glenn Close and Sigourney Weaver, will be performed on Sept. 19 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, named after the assassinated president

Kennedy Cuomo comes from a political dynasty that has long championed rights issues. Her earliest memories of her father are when he was attorney general during the civil rights movement in the American South.

"He had a deep and abiding interest in people who were struggling for human rights and dignity across the world, whether it was in Peru, Japan or Indonesia," she said.

"He was an enormous influence on me and an inspiration," she said of her father, who was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 42 as he sought the Democratic presidential nomination.

As part of their education, Kennedy Cuomo and her siblings had to discuss an interesting article they had read that day at dinner every night and recite a poem each Sunday. And every two weeks they had to do a biography of a famous person.

"I had 10 brothers and sisters and so there was a healthy sense of competition," she said.

Kennedy Cuomo, who is married to Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, hopes their three daughters will grow up with the same regard for human rights and respect for others. Asked if she thought her father would have been proud of her book, she said: "I would hope so, but I wouldn't want to put words into his mouth."

Her own career as a human rights campaigner began in the early 1980s during a college internship at Amnesty International when she documented abuses by U.S. immigration officials against refugees from El Salvador.

She founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights in 1987 and, as a lawyer, has worked on diverse human rights issues such as child labor and ethnic violence.

She describes her first book as a "spiritual journey" that examines why some people are capable of "reaching that higher level of humanity" by fighting for the rights of others.

Nearly all the activists had strong religious upbringing and were blessed with a sense of humor, she said, adding this was central to Czech President Vaclav Havel's philosophy on life.

"In a book that has its share of torture, there is a tremendous amount of humor. ... It's human rights humor, but it's there," said Kennedy Cuomo.

For example, a human rights campaigner in Guatemala told her how, when his life was threatened, his employers sent him a bulletproof vest with an "immediate money-back guarantee."

For many of the heroes, one of the biggest challenges was balancing their activism with their own personal lives. "A lot of people said they did the work they did so that their children could live in a better world."

Another theme of the book is forgiveness, and nearly all of those interviewed said they were ready to forgive.

"If you don't find a way of letting go of that fury you will destroy yourself. It's a lesson for all of us about the destructiveness of holding a grudge or allowing others to continue to harm us," Kennedy Cuomo said.

"I feel blessed that I don't feel that anger," she said when asked if she forgave the assassins who targeted her own family.

While inspired by those in her book, Kennedy Cuomo said they must not be seen as saints as it would be too easy to dismiss their work as something others could not do.

"All of us have a capacity to perform at our very best as human beings. That's why we were put on Earth," she said.

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