Human Rights Watch chief to step down after nearly three decades

FILE PHOTO: Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, gestures during an interview with Reuters in Geneva, Switzerland, January 12, 2021. Picture taken January 12, 2021. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said on Tuesday he would step down at the end of August after running the global rights watchdog for nearly three decades.

Human Rights Watch said it will conduct an open search for a successor and that Roth's deputy, Tirana Hassan, will serve as interim executive director of the organization, which works to document and curtail serious rights abuses around the world.