Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is a prominent nonprofit, nongovernmental organization focused on advocating for human rights and social justice globally. Founded in 1978 as Helsinki Watch, HRW initially sought to ensure compliance with human rights standards in Soviet-controlled nations but has since expanded its mission to address violations worldwide, including issues related to poverty, war, and terrorism. The organization is known for its extensive reporting on human rights abuses, with a particular focus on marginalized groups such as women, children, and refugees. Over the years, HRW has played a critical role in raising awareness about significant global conflicts, including the Persian Gulf War and the Rwandan genocide, while also advocating for justice in international tribunals.
In the twenty-first century, HRW has adapted its focus to address the complexities of terrorism and counterterrorism, ensuring that security measures do not infringe on civil liberties. Under the leadership of Kenneth Roth, HRW continues its work in nearly 100 countries, emphasizing the needs of the most disadvantaged populations. While HRW's advocacy has garnered significant attention, it has also faced criticism for its positions on sensitive geopolitical issues, such as the Israel-Palestine conflict. Nevertheless, the organization remains a key player in the global human rights movement, continuously striving to highlight and combat injustices around the world.
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization devoted to promoting human rights and social justice around the world. The group helps to improve the lives of disadvantaged people in many countries, extensively publishes its findings, and attempts to persuade world leaders to address human rights violations. In the twenty-first century, HRW works to alleviate human suffering caused by issues such as poverty, starvation, epidemics, war, and terrorism.
Founding of the Group
Human Rights Watch was founded in 1978 under the name Helsinki Watch. This group had formed to monitor the governments of Soviet Union–controlled countries in central and eastern Europe to ensure they were complying with the terms of the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Among other prescriptions, the accords promised that the basic human rights of the citizens of these Soviet-bloc countries would be upheld.
Into the 1980s, Helsinki Watch many times discovered that these governments were continuing to abuse human rights. In these cases, the organization began reporting on and exposing the violations and petitioning the governments directly to cease these actions. Through its advocacy, Helsinki Watch helped many of these totalitarian nations transition to democracies by the late 1980s.
Helsinki Watch's success had inspired human rights activists in other parts of the world to form their own watchdog groups. Americas Watch was founded in 1981, Asia Watch in 1985, and Africa Watch in 1988. Later in the decade, these related organizations combined to form the Watch Committees. In 1988, the group changed its name to the more universal Human Rights Watch.
Advocacy in the 1990s
Multiple world conflicts during the 1990s forced HRW to expand its reporting and advocacy campaigns. The first such event of the decade was the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War. This was fought by a United States–led coalition of countries against Iraq, which had recently invaded neighboring Kuwait. In response to the American bombing of Iraqi territory, HRW began reporting on violations of international laws of war as they applied to bombing campaigns.
In the mid-1990s, HRW reported thoroughly on the ethnic cleansing then taking place in Rwanda during a period of genocide and in the Balkans during the Bosnian War. After these conflicts ended, HRW publicly supported and commented on the international tribunals held for the perpetrators of the acts.
Elsewhere in the mid to late 1990s, the organization called for justice for former dictators Augusto Pinochet of Chile and Hissene Habre of Chad. The late 1990s saw HRW assisting the international conference that ultimately drafted the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands.
Around this time, HRW began pinpointing its human rights advocacy more accurately by focusing on specific oppressed groups around the world. These groups included women, children, migrant workers, refugees, and gay and lesbian people. HRW's reporting on these people's violated human rights helped bring global attention to ongoing issues such as human trafficking, domestic abuse, rape, and child soldiery. In 1997, HRW and several other parties were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to found the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
The Twenty-First Century
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States forced HRW to shift some of its focus to human rights violations as they related to international terrorism. The issues of terrorism, counterterrorism, and related warfare would occupy much of HRW’s efforts in the early decades of the twenty-first century, as occurrences of terror attacks became more prominent during this era.
HRW's antiterrorism activities consisted of reporting on terrorist attacks and pressuring terrorist groups and their partners to stop carrying out violence. At the same time, however, HRW monitored governments’ counterterrorism laws and practices to ensure they did not infringe on their citizens’ basic civil liberties while attempting to provide security.
Under the leadership of Executive Director Kenneth Roth from 1993 to 2022, HRW continued its advocacy for the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the world. The organization worked in around one hundred countries to help people experiencing poverty receive education and find affordable housing.
HRW’s advocacy frequently required it to take up partisan political stances. Although this was done in the name of ending human rights abuses worldwide, the group was sometimes criticized for its positions. For instance, in September 2014, Roth described how anti-Semitism erupted in Europe in response to Israel's especially violent methods in its ongoing war with neighboring Palestine.
Days after the remarks, an editorial in the Atlantic magazine denounced Roth's claim by stating that the Jewish people of Israel were not responsible for creating anti-Semitism any more than ethnic minorities were responsible for creating racism. The editorial asserted that major human rights advocacy groups such as Human Rights Watch should not accept, and therefore legitimize, poor excuses for bad behavior.
Similarly, in January 2016, HRW issued a report arguing that all businesses operating in Israeli settlements on Palestinian land were violating Palestine's territorial rights and helping to perpetuate the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. HRW called for all of these businesses to fulfill their duties to human rights by vacating the settlements immediately. Israel condemned HRW's report, saying Israeli settlements benefitted Palestinians by providing them with jobs. In the late 2010s, the HRW's areas of investigation included perennial issues such as homelessness, starvation, and extreme poverty as well as ever-developing situations such as the occupying terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) violence in Syria.
In the 2020s, the HRW continued its advocacy for children’s rights, including campaigns to protect children’s privacy online. It used satellite technology to monitor and document human rights abuses, including war crimes and torture, and pressured governments to intervene in serious crimes and incidents of human rights violations. LGBTQIA+ rights were also important areas of advocacy.
In 2021, the HRW called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel’s discrimination against the Palestinians. In 2023, following Roth's retirement from the organization, Tirana Hassan became the HRW's executive director.
Bibliography
"About Us." Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org/about-us. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.
"Flouting the European Court of Human Rights and Bringing Domestic Courts to Heel." Human Rights Watch, 24 Jan. 2025, www.hrw.org/news/2025/01/24/flouting-european-court-human-rights-and-bringing-domestic-courts-heel. Accessed 26 Jan. 2025.
Goldberg, Jeffrey. "Does Human Rights Watch Understand the Nature of Prejudice?" Atlantic, 21 Sept. 2014, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/09/does-human-rights-watchs-kenneth-roth-understand-the-nature-of-prejudice/380556. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.
"Helsinki Final Act, 1975." Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State, history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/helsinki. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.
"History." Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org/about/about-us/history. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.
"Human Rights Watch (HRW)." NGO Monitor, 24 July 2024, ngo-monitor.org/ngos/human‗rights‗watch‗hrw‗/. Accessed 26 Jan. 2025.
"Syria: Deliberate Killing of Civilians by ISIS." Human Rights Watch, 3 July 2015, www.hrw.org/news/2015/07/03/syria-deliberate-killing-civilians-isis. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.