Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organisations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, it gives voice to the oppressed and holds oppressors accountable for their crimes.
Its rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
Human Rights Watch began in 1978 with the creation of Helsinki Watch to support the citizen groups formed throughout the Soviet bloc to monitor government compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords.
Watches throughout the rest of the world followed, and in 1988 the organisation formally named itself Human Rights Watch. Ever since, it has continued to evolve and to develop new methods and strategies in response to the changing world.
