SCRUTINY • ACCOUNTABILITY • RENEWAL
"It Is Clear What Is Happening"
Insiders Speak: NGO Antisemitism, Failed Accountability & Social Cohesion
This 63-page report draws on first-hand experiences of more than 70 current and former staff from leading international NGOs, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the ICRC, Médecins Sans Frontières, Save the Children, Greenpeace and UNICEF. Supported by internal documentation, it exposes antisemitism, flawed methodologies, breaches of internal policies, and retaliation against staff who raised concerns. It also examines the broader consequences of these failures given the sector's role in shaping public and legal discourse, policymaking, and academia. The consistency of accounts across organizations, countries, and roles indicates systemic failures within a largely unscrutinized sector. It concludes with calls for independent reporting mechanisms, measurable performance indicators, and independent third-party oversight.
Why We Exist
Human rights and humanitarian organizations shape public opinion, policy, media, and legal processes worldwide. Yet the institutions that wield this influence are seldom required to demonstrate that they operate according to the standards and values they expect of others. A decades-long record of institutional failures, reinforced by the accounts of current and former staff, makes this exemption from independent scrutiny increasingly untenable.
EiGHT's purpose is to advance independent oversight, support NGO professionals, and promote transparent standards and measurable benchmarks that justify public trust.
Central to this effort is a more realistic understanding of the human rights and humanitarian sector—not as a morally exceptional sphere, but as an industry whose incentives, conduct, and consequences warrant the same independent scrutiny expected of other powerful institutions.
Who We Are
EiGHT was founded by professionals with direct experience across major international NGOs, multilateral institutions, and the human rights and humanitarian sector. It is a privately funded, politically independent, non-profit initiative based in Geneva.
Because some contributors remain professionally active in the sector and face a credible risk of retaliation, we protect their identities where requested—much as organizations across the sector routinely protect their own at-risk sources and partners. The fact that this is necessary is a sobering indictment of institutions that publicly champion free expression and whistleblowing, yet are themselves increasingly intolerant of criticism and open debate.
Media, Analysis, Research on NGO Accountability Failures
Scandals and failures have dogged the human rights and humanitarian sector for decades—from safeguarding failures and financial misconduct to racism and flawed methodologies. Typically reported as isolated incidents and framed by organizations as exceptional, they instead reflect a consistent pattern rooted in the same underlying problem: institutions with extraordinary influence operating without meaningful accountability.
Evidence Wall
Insider testimony, internal documentation, and published statements - each a brick in a living wall of failed NGO accountability
A Name with Purpose
