David Mepham

David Mepham has been UK director of Human Rights Watch since April 2011. Before then he was a senior policy adviser in the UK's Department for International Development; associate director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the head of its international programme; and head of policy and advocacy for Save the Children UK. He is co-editor of Progressive Foreign Policy - new directions for the UK (Polity, 2007) and author of many articles in the media

Is David Cameron serious about curbing child marriage?

The Prime Minister has stated his determination to combat child marriage globally, but he must use Britain's leverage more effectively in Bangladesh.

By David Mepham

/ 16 Jun 2015

Putting development to rights: a post-2015 agenda

A lesson of the last decade's work on the Millennium Development Goals is the need to rethink current approaches to development, says David Mepham, the UK director of Human Rights Watch. The key requirement is to see development not just as material improvement, vital though that is, but as a proc

By David Mepham

/ 28 Jan 2014

Getting to the truth about UK-Gaddafi ties

Some say we should put Britain's complicity in torture and human rights abuse in Libya behind us. We cannot do so. Lessons have not been learned, victims still await justice, while the 'secret courts bill' would help ensure future abuses remain hidden.

By David Mepham

/ 1 Feb 2013

Syria’s guilty men

The violent repression of citizens in Syria is escalating, and can now be linked to named officials of the regime. This reinforces the case for concerted international pressure to end the suffering, says David Mepham.

By David Mepham

/ 17 Dec 2011

South Africa: rights, accountability and maternal mortality

A study of the healthcare environment of expectant mothers in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa reveal severe problems that both the national government and overseas donors should address, says David Mepham.

By David Mepham

/ 11 Aug 2011

Gordon Brown’s foreign-policy challenges

The opening weeks of Gordon Brown's premiership have brought a marked change of tone to the conduct of British foreign policy. The misconceived and counterproductive notion of a

By David Held and David Mepham

/ 10 Aug 2007

Darfur and the responsibility to protect

At the sixtieth-anniversary summit of the general assembly of the United Nations in September 2005, the world's leaders endorsed an international "responsibility to protect": an obligation

By David Mepham

/ 11 Sep 2006

The next United Nations leader: a time for transparency

The biggest job in international diplomacy – the secretary-general of the United Nations – is up for grabs in the next few weeks. Kofi Annan will officially leave his post on 31

By David Mepham

/ 29 Aug 2006

Hamas and political reform in the middle east

The lesson of Palestine's election is that the international community should become more serious and sophisticated about political reform in the middle east, says David Mepham of the

By David Mepham

/ 1 Feb 2006

A mixed-bag summit

Kofi Annan could barely conceal his frustration. In an unusually frank and forthright address at the start of the United Nations world summit he lamented the failure of world leaders

By David Mepham

/ 19 Sep 2005

Accountability in Africa: whose problem?

The lessons Simon Zadek draws from his thoughtful openDavos blog from the World Economic Forum are cast in generic terms, without a strong geographical focus. But there are few areas

By David Mepham

/ 10 Feb 2005

David Helds missing links

David Helds essay on openDemocracy, Globalisation: the dangers and the answers is a timely, trenchant and wide-ranging analysis of the existing global order. It provides a particularly powerful critique

By David Mepham

/ 9 Jun 2004