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4.2.12 WC: 191694 “T’m certainly a civil libertarian, although I don’t like that term. I prefer to think of myself as an advocate for human rights...” Dershowitz’s definition of human rights is uncomplicated. He applies to the world at large a “core concept of human rights”—everyone should be free to express opinions and views, to read what one chooses, to have some influence in the process of government, to leave one’s country. One should be free from arbitrary arrest and trial, torture and execution. Wherever human rights are trampled, Dershowitz feels compelled to lend a hand, if possible. “I try hard to balance my attack, right and left—for every attack on the Soviet Union, there’s one on Chile. For every attack on a right-wing repressive government, there should be an attack on a left-wing repressive government.” Dershowitz’s strong personal identification with human rights goes back to his roots. “There but for the grace of my great grandparents go I,” he paraphrases. “If I were a 39 year old citizen of Kiev or wherever, I sure as hell hope I'd be a dissident and I suspect that there would be someone here trying to get me out.” “Tf there is discrimination against anybody, there is discrimination against everybody,” he says flatly, which explains his decision to defend John Lucido, a Catholic Italian lawyer, who filed suit against Cravath, Swaine and Moore, charging that the firm had failed to promote him to a partnership because of his nationality, his religion or both.” Dershowitz loves to teach and has integrated some of his human rights experiences into a seminar which he taught this spring with Visiting Professor Telford Taylor ’32, pioneer in the international protecting of human rights. The seminar taught future lawyers how to defend foreign dissident clients and how to promote human rights in other nations. “T think there are always between 30 and 100 students at the School who are really interested in these issues. That’s not to say that all of them, or even half of them, will ultimately involve themselves in the human rights struggle but at least they will be in a position to make substantial contributions in the area during their career.” This is one of the basic reasons for his remaining in teaching. As Dershowitz puts it, “In practice you can do a lot to implement human rights in this generation but in teaching you can both help this generation and help plant the seeds for progress later on.” Despite my deep involvement in human rights work, I wondered whether I was really having a discernable impact on the problems of the world. Unlike litigation in American courts, where the results are immediately evident, the impact of petitions, op ed articles, Congressional resolutions, and other conventional human rights activities on foreign countries tends to be less visible or immediate. I will never forget one encounter that made it all seem worth the apparently unrewarded efforts. I attended a concern by the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, several years after he left the Soviet Union. Since he had been a sometimes threatened advocate of human rights in 323 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017410