About Nicholas Bequelin

I am a human rights professional with a PhD in history and a scholarly bent. I worked about 20 years for Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, most recently as Regional director for Asia.

I am currently Visiting Scholar and Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, working on a project about the economic determinants of human rights violations

My interests are human rights, international relations, Asian history, and Chinese studies.

For the purpose of this podcast on the Human Rights Channel I am interested in showcasing important scholarly books in the field of human rights, at a time where there are important debates about its effects, and failures to produce effects, in the world.

There is an important stream of recent (and upcoming) books highlighting the failure of human rights to effectively address critical challenges in the world, such as poverty and inequalities, climate change, and the digital space. One issue of possible interest to the audience is the relative indifference that human practitioners show towards the scholarly literature--and the benefits of reversing this.

Nicholas Bequelin is a human rights professional with a PhD in history and a scholarly bent. He has worked about 20 years for Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, most recently as Regional director for Asia. He’s currently a Visiting Scholar and Lecturer at Yale Law School.

Nicholas's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Nicholas:

Sherine Tadros, "Taking Sides: A Memoir about Love, War, and Changing the World" (Scribe, 2023)

March 16, 2023

Taking Sides

Sherine Tadros

Taking Sides: A Memoir about Love, War, and Changing the World (Scribe, 2023) is a personal memoir by Sherine Tadros, the United Nations Representativ…

Elaine Pearson, "Chasing Wrongs and Rights: My Experience Defending Human Rights Around the World" (Simon & Schuster, 2022)

December 16, 2022

Chasing Wrongs and Rights

Elaine Pearson

Chasing Wrongs and Rights: My Experience Defending Human Rights Around the World (Simon & Schuster, 2022) by Elaine Pearson, the Asia Director at Huma…

Rana Siu Inboden, "China and the International Human Rights Regime: 1982–2017" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

May 23, 2022

China and the International Human Rights Regime

Rana Siu Inboden

In China and the International Human Rights Regime (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Rana Siu Inboden examines the evolution of China’s posture towa…

David P. Forsythe, "Advanced Introduction to the Politics of International Human Rights" (Edward Elgar, 2021)

April 25, 2022

Advanced Introduction to the Politics of International Human Rights

David P. Forsythe

“Human rights in public policy are constructed by diplomats and politicians in an international legislative process, not discovered amongst the clouds…

Stephen Vines, "Defying the Dragon: Hong Kong and the World’s Largest Dictatorship" (Hurst, 2021)

December 20, 2021

Defying the Dragon

Stephen Vines

What sequence of events led Hong Kong to lose its long-held status as a liberal enclave of China? What drove its population to rise up against its gov…

Don F. Selby, "Human Rights in Thailand" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2018)

November 9, 2021

Human Rights in Thailand

Don F. Selby

Don F. Selby’s Human Rights in Thailand (U Pennsylvania Press, 2018) is a rich anthropological study of the emergence of human rights in Thailand at a…