Kathryn Cameron Porter
Kathryn Cameron Porter, founder and President of Leadership Council for Human Rights, has spent her career working on critical human rights issues, with an emphasis on women and indigenous people. Prior to creating LCHR, in 1995 she founded the Human Rights Alliance, an organization which worked to protect and promote both human rights and human responsibilities throughout the world. Ms. Porter created the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. She has worked in a diverse range of countries from Armenia and Albania to Sudan and South Africa.
Trained as an anthropologist, with an extensive background of political activism, Ms. Porter possesses determination, unique insights and tireless energy on behalf of human rights, which for more than 20 years have brought her to the forefront of battlefields in many countries throughout the world. Until 1995, Ms. Porter served as Director of Gender and Social Policy for Conservation International (CI), an internationally recognized non-profit dedicated to ecosystem conservation integrating biological preservation with economic opportunity in local communities. She pioneered conservation-based empowerment, bringing together women and indigenous people for sustainable development.
Prior to her work at CI, Ms. Porter served in both the Reagan and Bush Administrations. As Special Assistant for International Affairs to the Secretary of Energy, she negotiated international agreements for the exchange of energy research and development and was also responsible for emergency preparedness programs. In this capacity, Kathryn worked with the National Security Council on issues relating to NATO.
Ms. Porter’s extensive on-the-ground experience in Iraq has been integral to LCHR’s successful track record there. She brokered a lasting peace agreement between current Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Kurdistan Regional Government head Massoud Barzani in the 1990s, and has established a diverse and influential list of regional contacts, including NGO leaders and government officials at every level. Ms. Porter also launched a campaign for the establishment of an international criminal court to bring Saddam Hussein to justice and pushed for a permanent international court for crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide and serious crimes of war.
Ms. Porter’s efforts on behalf of women, the indigenous, and refugees and internally displaced persons have been internationally recognized. She has helped to focus the attention of the United Nations and its various agencies as well as the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the OSCE on these issues.
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