Human Rights Watch

Investigating and reporting on abuse internationally.

Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world. They are roughly 550 plus people of 70-plus nationalities who are country experts, lawyers, journalists, and others who work to protect the most at risk, from vulnerable minorities and civilians in wartime, to refugees and children in need. They direct their advocacy towards governments, armed groups and businesses, pushing them to change or enforce their laws, policies and practices. To ensure independence, they refuse government funding and carefully review all donations to ensure that they are consistent with their policies, mission, and values. They partner with organizations large and small across the globe to protect embattled activists and to help hold abusers to account and bring justice to victims.

Human Rights Watch was founded in 1978 as “Helsinki Watch,” when we began investigating rights abuses in countries that signed the Helsinki Accords, most notably those behind the Iron Curtain. Since then, our work has expanded to five continents. We investigated massacres and even genocides, along with government take-overs of media and the baseless arrests of activists and political opposition figures. At the same time, we expanded our work to address abuses against those likely to face discrimination, including women, LGBT people, and people with disabilities. When families victimized by war crimes found no justice at home, we championed international justice and international courts. While we rely on in-person interviews, our research methods have also changed with the times, and today we use satellite imagery to track the destruction of villages and city blocks, and we mine big data for patterns in arrest rates or the deportation of immigrants. Everything we do circles back to our commitment to justice, dignity, compassion, and equality.

Dinners  

The Human Rights Watch Annual Dinner, Voices for Justice, celebrates the valor of individuals who put their lives on the line to defend the rights of others.

Jorja Fox attended the dinner in 2003.