Head of Human Rights Watch to resign after nearly 3 decades

NEW YORK (AP) — The longtime leader of Human Rights Watch says he will step down this summer as executive director. Kenneth Roth ran the New York-based group nearly three decades. Under his leadership, Human Rights Watch shared a Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its efforts to ban land mines. It also pushed to establish International Criminal Court to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Roth announced Tuesday he plans to step down at the end of August. He said, “I am leaving Human Rights Watch but I am not leaving the human rights cause.”