Why Did You Do That?: The Autobiography of a Human Rights Advocate

Why Did You Do That?is an autobiography of David Matas, an international human rights advocate. The book sets out his human rights activities and then attempts to explain why he did them.

People are focused on their immediate environment, their family, their friends, their work or their neighbourhood. Why should they go to the bother of trying to address a seemingly intractable situation in order to try help those with whom superficially they have nothing in common, who may be living in a country far away to which they have never been, speaking in a language they do not understand and part of a culture which is both foreign and strange?

The reason for the autobiography is an attempt to answer that question. By trying to explain why he did what he did, the author hopes to mobilize others, not to do what he did or is now doing, but rather just to do something, to shed feelings of indifference and impotence, to join the international human rights cause.

David Matas is an international human rights lawyer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In the course of his career, he has argued nineteen different human rights cases in the Supreme Court of Canada.

Mr. Matas has been active in a number of international human rights non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B'nai Brith, the International Commission of Jurists and the International Helsinki Human Rights Federation. The Government of Canada appointed him to several Canadian delegations at international meetings, including the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Conference on an International Criminal Court.

Mr. Matas is the author of a long list of published articles and opinion pieces as well as a speaker at a wide variety of international venues. He has already produced ten books, including Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for their Organs co-authored with David Kilgour, Seraphim Editions 2009 and State Organs: Transplant Abuse in China co?edited with Torsten Trey, Seraphim Editions, 2012.

Mr. Matas has received many awards and honours. In 2009, he was appointed to the Order of Canada. In 2010, with David Kilgour, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.