Dan Kovalik

Daniel Kovalik (born 1968) is an American human rights, labor rights lawyer and political activist. He has contributed articles to CounterPunch and The Huffington Post. He has taught International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Education
Kovalik graduated from Columbia Law School in 1993.

Career work
Kovalik has been involved in international human rights and social justice, mainly in Latin America. Kovalik's first book, The Plot to Scapegoat Russia, was published in 2017 by Skyhorse Publishing. He was co-author of the book No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using 'Humanitarian' Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests, which was published by Skyhorse Publishing in 2020.

Colombia
He worked on the Alien Tort Claims Act cases against The Coca-Cola Company, Drummond Company and Occidental Petroleum over alleged human rights abuses in Colombia. Kovalik accused the United States of intervention in Colombia, saying it has threatened peaceful actors there so it may "make Colombian land secure for massive appropriation and exploitation". He also accused the Colombian and United States governments of overseeing mass killings in Colombia between 2002 and 2009.

Venezuela
Kovalik is a supporter of the Venezuelan government. He has defended the Venezuelan government following both the 2014 Venezuelan protests and the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014 law enacted by the United States allowing the sanctioning of individuals who allegedly violated the human rights of Venezuelans. In a radio interview with Matt Dwyer about Venezuela's 2013 elections, Kovalik called the Bolivarian Revolution "the most benevolent revolution in history". On 26 February 2014, he attended the "Chávez Was Here" gathering created by the Embassy of Venezuela, Washington, D.C. to commemorate the presidency of Hugo Chávez and to show support for the Bolivarian Revolution. At the gathering, Kovalik spoke beside the Venezuelan ambassador Julio Escalona and economist Mark Weisbrot.

United States
Kovalik is the Associate General Counsel of the United Steelworkers union.

Russia and Ukraine
Kovalik is supportive of the Russian government in the Russo-Ukrainian War and has defended the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a 2022 column for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he claimed the 2014 Euromaidan was a "coup" led by the United States while the Ukrainian military—with focus on far-right elements like the Azov Battalion—targeted civilians in the Donbas prior to the full-scale invasion. The Ukraine Crisis Media Center denounced Kovalik's arguments as contradictory to his human rights activism, "bordering on conspiracy theories," and "correlating with the rhetoric of the Russian Federation."

He has visited Russia and Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. Kovalik is also a contributor to Russian state media RT and has written a book titled The Plot to Scapegoat Russia discussing the "the decades-long effort to escalate hostilities with Russia."