Human Rights Watch

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Human Rights Watch
Website	http://www.hrw.org/
Founded	1978
Headquarters	350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor New York , New York United States

Human Rights Watch is a nonprofit NGO dedicated to protecting human rights around the world. HRW produces reports on human rights violations as a means of focusing media and government attention on the issue.

History

Human Rights Watch came from the group Helsinki Watch which publicly named governments (specifically the Soviet Union) and specific people within them who violated the Helsinki Accords and other human rights. In The 1980’s other watch groups were formed, Americas watch Asia watch and Africa watch. All of these combined to create Human Rights watch in 1988.

Founding

This subsection should provide some historical context for the founding of your group, explain the motivations behind it, and describe the steps taken and challenges faced by its founders to get the ball rolling.

Current objectives and activities

Human Rights Watch will investigate a suspected human rights violation locally and produce a report called the World Report. The report highlights the current human rights situation around the world. They are known for publicly shaming governments by exposing the situation to the media and pushing the issue to the eyes of the world media. Media exposer is their main tool for eliminating human right violations. Their goal is to expose and end violations. Human Rights Watch has also taken on the issue of health concerns such as AIDS/HIV.

Organizational structure

The executive director of Human Rights Watch is Kenneth Roth since 1993. Before working for HRW he was a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Human rights watch consist of different watches for each region, Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. They all have local researchers that generate reports. HRW employs over 275 people including layers, journalists, and academics.

Achievements

HRW won the Nobel Peace Prize 1997 for the collaboration in the campaign to stop the use of landmines. They pushed for the removal of all landmines along with the trade and creation on landmines, and were an important influence on the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.

Public perception and controversies

While HRW claims to have no political bias they have been criticized for being a politically left organization that often criticizes the United States. Examples include: HRW wanted a legal response to the 9/11 Attacks opposing a violent war. HRW supports the removal of border protection along the U.S Mexican border. They also support amnesty for illegal aliens. They are also accused of being too critical of Israel during their war with Hezbollah.