Robert L. Bernstein

Robert L. Bernstein is an U.S. publisher and human rights activist.

The Yale Law School said:
*He has devoted his life to the active defense of freedom of expression and to the protection of victims of injustice and abuse throughout the world. As one of the most influential voices in American publishing for over three decades, he is also a dominant force in the development of the international human rights movement. [Yale Law School, Biography of Robert L. Bernstein. [http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/bernsteinbio.htm] ]

Career in Publishing

Mr. Bernstein started as an office boy at Simon & Schuster in 1946, moved to Random House in 1956 and succeeded Bennett Cerf as President and CEO in 1966. He headed Random House for 25 years. He published many great American authors, including William Faulkner, James Michener, Dr. Seuss, Toni Morrison and William Styron.

After being invited to the Soviet Union as part of a delegation from the Association of American Publishers, he became interested in writers whose work could not be published in their own countries. Beginning with Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner, he ensured that authors like Vaclav Havel, Jacobo Timerman and Wei Jingsheng were all published around the world.

Involvement in Human Rights Movement

After his experience in Moscow in 1973, Mr. Bernstein returned to the U.S. and established the Fund for Free Expression, which eventually grew into Human Rights Watch. Today, Human Rights Watch has a staff of nearly two hundred and covers some 70 countries. With offices in a dozen places, Human Rights Watch is renowned for superb research and extremely effective advocacy on a broad range of issues, including women’s rights, children’s rights, international justice, the human rights responsibilities of corporations, refugees, arms transfers and free expression everywhere. Mr. Bernstein served as Chair for twenty years and remains active as Founding Chair. He is also Chair Emeritus of the largest Chinese human rights organization, Human Rights in China, with offices in New York, Hong Kong and Brussels.

International Recognition

Mr. Bernstein has won numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the Florina Lasker Award from the New York Civil Liberties Union; the Human Rights Award from the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights; the Spirit of Liberty Award from People for the American Way; the Barnard Medal of Distinction from Barnard College; the Curtis Benjamin Award for Distinguished Publishing from the Association of American Publishers; and, in 1998, the United States’ first Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, which was presented by President Bill Clinton.

At Yale, Mr. Bernstein has been honored by friends and colleagues with the establishment of the Robert L. Bernstein Fellowships in International Human Rights at Yale Law School. [Yale Law School, Bernstein Fellowship. [http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/bernsteinfellowship.htm] ] The fellowships are awarded annually to two or three Law School graduates devoted to advancing human rights protection around the world. Mr. Bernstein has lectured at Yale and served as a Gordon Grand fellow. Mr. Bernstein was also honored by New York University School of Law, which established the Robert L. Bernstein Fellowship in International Human Rights in 2006, annually providing an opportunity for a recent School of Law graduate to engage in full-time human rights work at Human Rights in China. [Human Rights in China, Robert L. Bernstein Fellowship in International Human Rights. [http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/30702] ]

He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Swarthmore College, The New School, Bard College, Hofstra University, Bates College, Tougaloo College, and Yale University. He holds a B.S. degree from Harvard.

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