The cause of human rights in Asia has lost a “champion” activist in Mike Jendrzejczyk, who colleagues left an unfillable “void” after his death at the age of 53.
Human Rights Watch, his employer for 13 years, said Friday he died in Washington on Thursday of natural causes and there were no suspicious circumstances.
Jendrzejczyk, an incessantly nagging presence in the corridors of power, was Washington director for the Asia division of the group and campaigned on behalf of countless Asian dissidents and persecuted peoples.
The State Department, often the target of Jendrzejczyk’s lobbying campaigns, said it learned of his sudden death with “shock and sorrow.”
“Mike was a deeply respected, valued friend and colleague in many enterprises over the years,” said State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker.
“Many of us in the Department frequently reached out to Mike for his insights and perspectives on human rights conditions around the world, and for a quiet helping hand in efforts to get many imprisoned dissidents out of harm’s way and resettled in the United States.”
“In everything he did, Mike adhered to his vision, to his ideals, and to his word.
“He was a person of absolute integrity. He will be very sorely missed.”
Jendrzejczyk’s colleagues struggled to comprehend his loss.
“Mike has left a void that simply cannot be filled — not only as a powerful advocate for human rights, but also as a colleague and friend whose infectious energy and passion for social justice inspired us all,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement.
John Ackerly, President of the International Campaign for Tibet, paid tribute to a man he described as a “stalwart” of the human rights scene.
“He always took a leadership role that wasn’t overbearing, he always had his eye on the prize.
“A lot of the battles he took on were big ones, a lot of them weren’t ones the human rights community won, but he didn’t shirk from big goals.”
Jendrzejczyk was a renowed expert on many human rights concerns, but was particulary respected for his knowledge of China, the World Bank, US foreign policy in Asia, Myanmar, North Korean refugees and Tibet.
To the dissident community in Asia he was sometimes anonymous as he sheltered behind the HRW banner but proved an ever present ally, with his pithy summations of human rights violations, the last of which, on Cambodia, appeared this week.
“Colleagues joked that if you could harness Mike’s energy, it would power a small city,” the HRW statement said of a man known by sight by every US lawmaker or official with a modicum of sympathy to human rights.
“There’s no one in DC who didn’t know him, and no one in military fatigues in Asia who didn’t have reason to fear him,” said HRW.
“He was late for every meeting, but only because he was saving the world on the other line. No email went unanswered, no phone call went unreturned, and no opportunity to make a difference was ever passed up. He has changed and saved the lives of so many.”
Jendrzejczyk became involved in human rights as a Vietnam war protestor in the 1970s and as an anti-nuclear demonstrator in the 1980s. He worked for Amnesty International in the 1980s.
Amnesty paid tribute to its old campaigner after learning of his death.
“An irreplaceable force for human rights,” Amnesty said of its former employee, whom it termed a “human rights champion.”
HRW said “though most of us are unable still to correctly spell his last name, we simply could not have gotten through each day without him.”
“It is hard to imagine how we will.”
