During the 1968 Polish political crisis he participated in students' demonstrations at age 15 with the expectation that his father, a former Communist Party of America organizer, would be proud of him.

In 1992 and 1993, he served as an advisor to Tadeusz Mazowiecki, then Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations and its representative in former Yugoslavia.

In a lecture on 9 January 2014 before the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, Gebert said: People often ask about the importance of democratic traditions in Central Europe in ensuring the ultimate success of the revolution that swept away Communism.

In Central Europe, with the one exception of Czechoslovakia, democratic traditions, such as they were, never played a significant role…I don’t think democratic traditions are like fruit preserves that you can take out of the larder and eat sixty-five years later.”[5] He is a member of the European Press Prize preparatory committee.

[6] Since November 2021 Gebert is part of the international advisory board of the Austrian Service Abroad.