Kamm received an AB from Princeton University (1972) and an AM from Harvard University (1975). He served as the Hong Kong correspondent and representative of the National Council for US-China Trade (1975–1979) and vice president (1989) and president (1990) of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Kamm also managed business operations for Occidental Chemical Company in China and East Asia (1981–1991).
Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce
With no background in human rights, Kamm took his first activist stance as vice president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong by convincing the majority of chamber members to pass a resolution condemning China's suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Despite strong opposition from many who thought the chamber should avoid making political statements, Kamm's initiative was a success.
As president of the chamber the following year, Kamm pressured Beijing to release individuals who were imprisoned for their participation in the Tiananmen Square protests. He also advocated for the extension of China's Most Favored Nation (MFN) trade status, arguing that engagement with China is more effective than sanctions at improving the status of political detainees.[3]
Advocacy work
From 1991 to 1994—the year US President Bill Clinton unconditionally renewed China's MFN trade status, Kamm started doing advocacy work full-time. Traveling frequently to China, he raised the names of hundreds of prisoners and received verbal information from the Chinese government on more than half of them. In 1995, China's State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Justice agreed to receive from Kamm quarterly prisoner lists of up to 25 names and began providing written responses on many of the cases.
Over the following years, the willingness of the Chinese government to cooperate with Kamm fluctuated in step with US-China relations. Despite periodic obstacles, Kamm continued traveling to Beijing and submitting prisoner lists. Although US-China relations were strained during the first half of 1999, Kamm went ahead with plans to establish Dui Hua in April 1999, serving as its first chairman and executive director.
Kamm's work has enabled many of China's political and religious prisoners to receive clemency in the form of sentence reductions, parole, and early releases, as well as better treatment in prison. One such person who benefited from Kamm's interventions, Tibetan nun Ngawang Sangdrol, was the focus of Marie Louville’s documentary film, Prisoner in Lhasa. The film documents how Kamm’s work contributed to Ngawang Sangdrol’s release.[4]
Today, Kamm continues to travel throughout the United States, Europe, and China to meet with government officials, legal experts, and scholars on issues ranging from political and religious detainees, juvenile justice reform, women in prison and the implementation of the Bangkok Rules (Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders), and death penalty and criminal justice reform. He also frequently participates in talks, forums, councils and roundtables hosted by academic, governmental, and nongovernmental institutions worldwide. He has testified on numerous occasions to the US Congress, for example on November 3, 2011 to the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs.[5]