Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization headquartered in New York City that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.[2] The group pressures governments, policymakers, companies, and individual human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners.
"HRW" redirects here. For other uses, see HRW (disambiguation).Founded
1978 (as Helsinki Watch)
New York City, U.S.
Worldwide
Nonprofit human rights advocacy
Tirana Hassan
(Executive Director)
$85.6 million (2019)[1]
Helsinki Watch
In 1997, Human Rights Watch shared the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.[3] It played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions.[4]
HRW's annual expenses totaled $50.6 million in 2011,[5] $69.2 million in 2014,[6] and $75.5 million in 2017.[7]
History[edit]
Human Rights Watch was co-founded by Robert L. Bernstein,[8] Jeri Laber, and Aryeh Neier[9] as a private American NGO in 1978, under the name Helsinki Watch, to monitor the then-Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Accords.[10] Helsinki Watch adopted a practice of publicly "naming and shaming" abusive governments through media coverage and direct exchanges with policymakers. Helsinki Watch says that, by shining the international spotlight on human rights violations in the Soviet Union and its European partners, it contributed to the region's democratic transformations in the late 1980s.[10]
Americas Watch was founded in 1981 while bloody civil wars engulfed Central America. Relying on extensive on-the-ground fact-finding, Americas Watch not only addressed perceived abuses by government forces but also applied international humanitarian law to investigate and expose war crimes by rebel groups. In addition to raising concerns in the affected countries, Americas Watch also examined the role played by foreign governments, particularly the United States government, in providing military and political support to abusive regimes.
Asia Watch (1985), Africa Watch (1988) and Middle East Watch (1989) were added to what was known as "The Watch Committees". In 1988, these committees united under one umbrella to form Human Rights Watch.[11][12]
In April 2021, Human Rights Watch released a report accusing Israel of apartheid and calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate "systematic discrimination" against Palestinians, becoming the first major international rights NGO to do so.[13][14]
In August 2020, the Chinese government sanctioned HRW executive director Kenneth Roth—along with the heads of four other U.S.-based democracy and human rights organizations and six U.S. Republican lawmakers—for supporting the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. The five organizations' leaders saw the sanctioning, whose details were unspecified, as a tit-for-tat measure in response to the earlier U.S. sanctioning of 11 Hong Kong officials. The latter step had in turn been a reaction to the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law in June.[15] In October 2021, The New York Times reported that HRW left Hong Kong as a result of the Chinese sanctions, with the situation in Hong Kong henceforth to be monitored by HRW's China team. The decision to leave came amid a wider crackdown on civil society groups in Hong Kong.[16]
On 8 March 2023, Bahrain canceled two HRW staff members' entry permit visas to attend the 146th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly. The permits were issued on 30 January 2023. Holding a constant observer status with IPU, HRW authorities had a permanent access to attend the organization's assemblies. Bahrain held the IPU Meeting from 11-15 March 2023.[17]
Financing and services[edit]
For the financial year ending June 2008, HRW reported receiving approximately US$44 million in public donations.[31] In 2009, HRW said it received almost 75% of its financial support from North America, 25% from Western Europe and less than 1% from the rest of the world.[32]
According to a 2008 financial assessment, HRW reports that it does not accept any direct or indirect funding from governments and is financed through contributions from private individuals and foundations.[33]
Financier George Soros of the Open Society Foundations announced in 2010 his intention to grant US$100 million to HRW over ten years to help it expand its efforts internationally: "to be more effective", he said, "I think the organization has to be seen as more international, less an American organization." He continued, "Human Rights Watch is one of the most effective organizations I support. Human rights underpin our greatest aspirations: they're at the heart of open societies."[34][35][36] The donation, the largest in HRW's history, increased its operating staff of 300 by 120 people.[37]
Charity Navigator gave HRW a three-star rating for 2018. Its financial rating increased from three stars in 2015 to the maximum four as of 2016.[38] The Better Business Bureau said HRW meets its standards for charity accountability.[39]
Some notable current and former staff members of Human Rights Watch:[40]
Publications[edit]
Human Rights Watch publishes reports on many different topics[53] and compiles an annual World Report presenting an overview of the worldwide state of human rights.[54] It has been published by Seven Stories Press since 2006; the current edition, World Report 2020, was released in January 2020, and covers events of 2019.[55][56] World Report 2020, HRW's 30th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, includes reviews of human rights practices and trends in nearly 100 countries, and an introductory essay by Executive Director Kenneth Roth, "China's Global Threat to Human Rights". HRW has reported extensively on subjects such as the Rwandan genocide of 1994,[57] the Democratic Republic of the Congo,[58] and the excessive breadth of U.S. sex offender registries and their application to juveniles.[59][60]
In the summer of 2004, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University in New York became the depository institution for the Human Rights Watch Archive, an active collection that documents decades of human rights investigations around the world. The archive was transferred from the Norlin Library at the University of Colorado, Boulder. It includes administrative files, public relations documents, and case and country files. With some exceptions for security considerations, the Columbia University community and the public have access to field notes, taped and transcribed interviews with alleged victims of human rights violations, video and audiotapes, and other materials documenting HRW's activities since its founding in 1978 as Helsinki Watch.[61] Some parts of the HRW archive are not open to researchers or to the public, including the records of the meetings of the board of directors, the executive committee, and the various subcommittees, limiting historians' ability to understand the organization's internal decision-making.[62]
