Catalysts for Change

Ted Piccone, a senior fellow and deputy director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, brings to this groundbreaking study over two decades of experience as a human rights lawyer, researcher, and senior adviser at the National Security Council, the State Department, and the Pentagon. He is a coeditor of Shifting the Balance: Obama and the Americas and The Obama Administration and the Americas: Agenda for Change, both published by Brookings.

"Ted Piccone has made an important contribution to our understanding of how the UnitedNations' human rights fact-finding bodies work and how important they are to the globaleffort to prevent atrocities and systematic human rights abuses." —President Jimmy Carter|"The United Nations, and its independent human rights experts, have an important role toplay in concluding conflicts and protecting human rights. This book greatly expands ourunderstanding of how these mechanisms work. Piccone's critical insights can help the UNimprove its promotion of human rights." —Cherif Bassiouni, Distinguished Research Professor of Law Emeritus, DePaul University College of Law|"Ted Piccone makes an important contribution to assessing the impact of the UN'sindependent experts because he asks whether they make a difference on the ground, where the battles for human rights are ultimately won or lost. This book is an essential tool in the task of perfecting the UN's mechanisms to promote human rights for all." —Juan Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur on torture