Editing Human Rights Watch (section)

== History ==
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Human Rights Watch was co-founded by [[Robert L. Bernstein]],<ref name="Bernstein_19102009">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/opinion/20bernstein.html?_r=1&em|title=Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast|last=Bernstein|first=Robert L.|date=October 19, 2009|newspaper=The NY Times|access-date=October 20, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311010135/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/opinion/20bernstein.html?_r=1&em|archive-date=March 11, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Jeri Laber]], and [[Aryeh Neier]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/events-calendar/wednesday-april-18-a-talk-by-aryeh-neier-co-founder-of-human-rights-watch-president-of-the-open-society-foundations/ |title=A Talk by Aryeh Neier, Co-Founder of Human Rights Watch, President of the Open Society Foundations |work=[[Harvard University]] |date=April 16, 2012 |access-date=May 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526041041/http://hrp.law.harvard.edu/events-calendar/wednesday-april-18-a-talk-by-aryeh-neier-co-founder-of-human-rights-watch-president-of-the-open-society-foundations/ |archive-date=May 26, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> as a private American [[NGO]] in 1978, under the name [[Helsinki Watch]], to monitor the then-[[Soviet Union]]'s compliance with the [[Helsinki Accords]].<ref name="OH">{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/en/node/75134|title=Our History|publisher=Human Rights Watch|access-date=July 23, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118224658/http://www.hrw.org/en/node/75134|archive-date=January 18, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Helsinki Watch adopted a practice of publicly "[[:wikt:name and shame|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 [[democracy|democratic]] transformations in the late 1980s.<ref name="OH"/>

Americas Watch was founded in 1981 while bloody [[civil war]]s 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 crime]]s 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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-09-24 |title=Our History {{!}} Human Rights Watch |url=https://www.hrw.org/our-history |access-date=2024-08-11 |language=en}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Our History|url=https://www.hrw.org/node/75134|agency=Human Rights Watch (HRW.org)|access-date=February 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140206203626/http://www.hrw.org/node/75134|archive-date=February 6, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Chauhan|first=Yamini|title=Human Rights Watch|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1459072/Human-Rights-Watch|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=March 2, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202231513/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1459072/Human-Rights-Watch|archive-date=December 2, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

In April 2021, Human Rights Watch released a report [[Israel and apartheid|accusing Israel of apartheid]] and calling on the [[International Criminal Court investigation in Palestine|International Criminal Court]] to investigate "systematic discrimination" against Palestinians, becoming the first major international rights [[non-governmental organization|NGO]] to do so.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Holmes |first1=Oliver |title=Israel is committing the crime of apartheid, rights watchdog says |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/27/israel-committing-crime-apartheid-human-rights-watch |access-date=27 April 2021 |work=the Guardian |date=27 April 2021 |language=en |archive-date=17 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517150723/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/27/israel-committing-crime-apartheid-human-rights-watch |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution |website=Human Rights Watch |access-date=27 April 2021 |date=27 April 2021 |archive-date=28 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428073809/https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution |url-status=live}}</ref>

In August 2020, the Chinese government [[Chinese sanctions|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 [[2020 Hong Kong national security law|Hong Kong National Security Law]] in June.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-democracy-and-human-rights-leaders-sanctioned-by-china-vow-not-to-be-cowed-into-silence/2020/08/10/0878f65a-db48-11ea-b4af-72895e22941d_story.html|title=U.S. democracy and human rights leaders sanctioned by China vow not to be cowed into silence|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]|first=Carol|last=Morello|date=August 11, 2020|access-date=January 11, 2021|archive-date=August 11, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811084722/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-democracy-and-human-rights-leaders-sanctioned-by-china-vow-not-to-be-cowed-into-silence/2020/08/10/0878f65a-db48-11ea-b4af-72895e22941d_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/world/asia/hong-kong-civil-society.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211228/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/world/asia/hong-kong-civil-society.html |archive-date=2021-12-28 |url-access=limited|title=As Hong Kong's civil society buckles, one group tries to hold on|first=Austin|last=Ramzy|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 24, 2021|access-date=October 25, 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/10/bahrain-revokes-human-rights-watch-visas |title=Bahrain Revokes Human Rights Watch Visas |access-date=10 March 2023 |website=HRW |date=10 March 2023 |archive-date=2 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102225119/https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/10/bahrain-revokes-human-rights-watch-visas |url-status=live}}</ref>