Obama appointee Karen Hanrahan Takes Us to the Heart of Human Rights

Karen Hanrahan is an appointee in the Obama Administration serving as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Human Rights and Democracy. She has also worked with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Karen has been the U.S. Coordinator for International Assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the Chief Innovation Officer for the UK Department for International Development (DFID), on detail assignment in London.

We met her back in the spring of 2008—before she had stepped into these top jobs. The common denominator for all of her work, as she’ll explain, is working through the US government agencies she works for to help improve the plight of people around the world. So let’s get started!

In this podcast interview you’ll learn:

• By definition, Human rights are moral principles or norms that describe certain standards of human behaviour, and are regularly protected as legal rights in national and international law. How does Karen define human rights, and how is it defined by the US government?

• The plight of women and girls, and the millions of other groups who are persecuted around, is a daunting issue to understand — much less solve. How is Karen, in her government role, working to help?

• In the decades that she has been working on human rights issues have you seen an improvement?

• Our audience of small business owners are often altruistic in their thinking, but when it comes to human rights it a topic that seems so overwhelming. What are some steps that SBOs can take to help make a difference?

Download the podcast now!

And be sure to read more about the Heart of Human Rights in Be Inkandescent magazine.