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Human Rights Watch

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"HRW" redirects here. For other uses, see HRW (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society or Human Rights Campaign.
Human Rights Watch
Founded1978; 47 years ago (1978) (as Helsinki Watch)
TypeNon-profit, NGO
FocusHuman rights, activism
HeadquartersNew York City, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
ProductNonprofit human rights advocacy
Executive Director
Federico Borello[1]
(Interim)
Revenue$85.6 million (2019)[2]
Websitewww.hrw.org Edit this at Wikidata
Former executive Director Kenneth Roth speaking at the 44th Munich Security Conference 2008

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.[3] Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including war crimes, crimes against humanity, child labor, torture, human trafficking, and women's and LGBTQ rights. It pressures governments, policymakers, companies, and individual abusers to respect human rights, and frequently works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners.

The organization was founded in 1978 as Helsinki Watch, whose purpose was to monitor the Soviet Union's compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Its separate global divisions merged into Human Rights Watch in 1988. The group publishes annual reports on about 100 countries with the goal of providing an overview of the worldwide state of human rights. In 1997, HRW shared the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.[4] It played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions.[5]

HRW's annual expenses totaled $50.6 million in 2011,[6] $69.2 million in 2014,[7] and $75.5 million in 2017.[8][needs update]

History

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Human Rights Watch was co-founded by Robert L. Bernstein,[9] Jeri Laber, and Aryeh Neier[10] as a private American NGO in 1978, under the name Helsinki Watch, to monitor the then-Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Accords.[11] 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.[11]

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.[12]

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.[13][14]

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.[15][16]

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.[17] 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.[18]

On 8 March 2023, Bahrain canceled two HRW staff members' entry permit to attend the 146th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly later that month, despite HRW's permanent observer status with the IPU.[19]

Israel.[20]

Financing and services

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For the financial year ending June 2008, HRW reported receiving approximately US$44 million in public donations.[21] 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.[22]

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.[23]

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."[24][25][26] The donation, the largest in HRW's history, increased its operating staff of 300 by 120 people.[27]

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.[28] The Better Business Bureau said HRW meets its standards for charity accountability.[29]

Notable staff

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Kenneth Roth and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, February 2, 2012

Some notable current and former staff members of Human Rights Watch:[30]

Publications

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Human Rights Watch publishes reports on many different topics[43] and compiles an annual World Report presenting an overview of the worldwide state of human rights.[44] 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.[45][46] 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,[47] the Democratic Republic of the Congo,[48] and the excessive breadth of U.S. sex offender registries and their application to juveniles.[49][50]

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.[51] 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.[52]

Criticism

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Main article: Criticism of Human Rights Watch

HRW has been criticized for perceived bias by the national governments it has investigated for human rights abuses.[53][54][55] Some sources allege HRW is biased against Israel in its coverage of the Israel–Palestine conflict.[9][56]

In 2014, two Nobel Peace Laureates, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Mairead Maguire, wrote a letter signed by 100 other human rights activists and scholars criticizing HRW for its revolving-door hiring practices with the U.S. government, its failure to denounce the U.S. practice of extrajudicial rendition, its endorsement of the U.S. 2011 military intervention in Libya, and its silence during the 2004 Haitian coup d'état.[57]

In 2020, HRW's board of directors discovered that HRW accepted a $470,000 donation from Saudi real estate magnate Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, owner of a company HRW "had previously identified as complicit in labor rights abuse", under the condition that the donation not be used to support LGBT advocacy in the Middle East and North Africa. After The Intercept reported the donation, it was returned, and HRW issued a statement that accepting it was "deeply regrettable".[58]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Human Rights Watch Board Announces Leadership Transition". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on March 10, 2025. Retrieved March 10, 2025.
  2. ^ "Form 990" (PDF). hrw.org. 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-09-12.
  3. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  4. ^ "HRW Statement on Nobel Prize". hrw.org. Archived from the original on 2023-06-08. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  5. ^ "History". www.hrw.org. April 21, 2015. Archived from the original on May 8, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  6. ^ "Financial Statements, Year Ended June 30, 2011" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 17, 2012. Retrieved June 26, 2012.
  7. ^ "Financial Statements, Year Ended June 30, 2014" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  8. ^ "Annual Report 2017" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 2, 2018. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  9. ^ a b Bernstein, Robert L. (October 19, 2009). "Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast". The NY Times. Archived from the original on March 11, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
  10. ^ "A Talk by Aryeh Neier, Co-Founder of Human Rights Watch, President of the Open Society Foundations". Harvard University. April 16, 2012. Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  11. ^ a b "Our History". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
  12. ^ "Our History | Human Rights Watch". 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
  13. ^ "Our History". Human Rights Watch (HRW.org). Archived from the original on February 6, 2014. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
  14. ^ Chauhan, Yamini. "Human Rights Watch". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
  15. ^ Holmes, Oliver (27 April 2021). "Israel is committing the crime of apartheid, rights watchdog says". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 May 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  16. ^ "A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution". Human Rights Watch. 27 April 2021. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  17. ^ Morello, Carol (August 11, 2020). "U.S. democracy and human rights leaders sanctioned by China vow not to be cowed into silence". Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  18. ^ Ramzy, Austin (October 24, 2021). "As Hong Kong's civil society buckles, one group tries to hold on". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2021-12-28. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  19. ^ "Bahrain Revokes Human Rights Watch Visas". HRW. 10 March 2023. Archived from the original on 2 January 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  20. ^ Jonathan Foreman (March 28, 2010). "Explosive Territory". The Sunday Times.
  21. ^ "Financial Statements. Year Ended June 30, 2008" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 14, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
  22. ^ "Human Rights Watch Visit to Saudi Arabia". Human Rights Watch. July 17, 2009. Archived from the original on July 22, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
  23. ^ "Financials". Human Rights Watch. September 22, 2008. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
  24. ^ "George Soros to Give $100 Million to Human Rights Watch". Human Rights Watch. September 7, 2010. Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  25. ^ Colum Lynch (September 12, 2010). "With $100 million Soros gift, Human Rights Watch looks to expand global reach". Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved August 31, 2017. The donation, the largest single gift ever from the Hungarian-born investor and philanthropist, is premised on the belief that U.S. leadership on human rights has been diminished by a decade of harsh policies in the war on terrorism.
  26. ^ "Financial Statements, Year Ended June 30, 2011 (See page 16 for the Open Society Foundation's contribution)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  27. ^ Pilkington, Ed (September 7, 2010). "George Soros gives $100 million to Human Rights Watch". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  28. ^ "Charity Navigator - Rating for Human Rights Watch". Charity Navigator. Archived from the original on May 10, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  29. ^ "BBB Wise Giving Alliance Seal Confirmation Page". January 27, 2017. Archived from the original on January 27, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  30. ^ "Human Rights Watch". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on September 17, 2009.
  31. ^ "New Chairs to Lead Human Rights Watch Board". Human Rights Watch. November 5, 2019. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
  32. ^ John J. Studzinski Archived April 8, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Human Rights Watch.
  33. ^ Wachman, Richard. "Cracking the Studzinski code" Archived February 1, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. The Observer. October 7, 2006.
  34. ^ "Most influential Americans in the UK: 20 to 11" Archived August 1, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. The Telegraph. November 22, 2007.
  35. ^ "Donation provides cornerstone for new Transforming Tate Modern development" Archived April 9, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Tate Modern. May 22, 2007.
  36. ^ John Studzinski Archived May 21, 2014, at archive.today. Debrett's.
  37. ^ John Studzinski Archived April 8, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Institute for Public Policy Research.
  38. ^ "Royal Honor for John Studzinski '78, Architectural Accolades for Namesake" Archived February 9, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Bowdoin College Campus News. Bowdoin.edu. February 26, 2008.
  39. ^ Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch World Report, 2003 Archived April 19, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Human Rights Watch, 2003. p. 558.
  40. ^ Pilkington, Ed (September 15, 2009). "Human Rights Watch investigator suspended over Nazi memorabilia". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 7, 2013. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  41. ^ Seelye, Katharine Q. (March 29, 2019). "Tejshree Thapa, Defender of Human Rights in South Asia, Dies at 52". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 28, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  42. ^ "Human Rights Watch Honors Afghanistan Activist". Human Rights Watch. 4 November 2004. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
  43. ^ "Publications". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on July 29, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2009.
  44. ^ Previous World Reports. Human Rights Watch. January 12, 2009. Archived from the original on July 30, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2009.
  45. ^ World Report 2020: Human Rights Trends Around the Globe. Human Rights Watch. November 25, 2019. Archived from the original on January 21, 2020. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  46. ^ World Report 2020. November 25, 2019. Archived from the original on January 21, 2020.
  47. ^ Rwandan genocide report Archived October 31, 2010, at the Wayback Machine,Human Rights Watch
  48. ^ Congo report Archived September 9, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Human Rights Watch
  49. ^ "No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US". Human Rights Watch. September 12, 2007. Archived from the original on April 11, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  50. ^ "Raised on the Registry: The Irreparable Harm of Placing Children on Sex Offender Registries in the US". Human Rights Watch. May 1, 2013. Archived from the original on July 29, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  51. ^ "Human Rights Watch Archive Moves to Columbia University". lj.libraryjournal.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2014.
  52. ^ Slezkine, Peter (December 16, 2014). "From Helsinki to Human Rights Watch: How an American Cold War Monitoring Group Became an International Human Rights Institution". Humanity. Archived from the original on 2019-12-27.
  53. ^ Kirkpatrick, David D. (August 12, 2016). "After Human Rights Watch Report, Egypt Says Group Broke Law". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20.
  54. ^ "Saudi Arabia outraged by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch's criticism". Ya Libnan. July 1, 2016. Archived from the original on 2018-06-20.
  55. ^ "A row over human rights". The Economist. February 5, 2009. Archived from the original on December 16, 2019. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
  56. ^ Friedman, Matti (November 30, 2014). "What the Media Gets Wrong About Israel". Archived from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  57. ^ Davis, Stuart (2023). Sanctions as War: Anti-Imperialist Perspectives on American Geo-Economic Strategy. Haymarket Books. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-64259-812-4. OCLC 1345216431.
  58. ^ Emmons, Alex (March 2, 2020). "Human Rights Watch Took Money From Saudi Businessman After Documenting His Coercive Labor Practices". Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
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