Human Rights Watch ( HRW ) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. HRW is headquartered in New York City with offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Washington, DC, and ZÃÆ'¼rich. The group is pressuring governments, policymakers and human rights abusers to denounce harassment and respect for human rights, and the group often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants and political prisoners.
Human Rights Watch in 1997 shared the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and played a leading role in the 2008 bundle agreement agreement.
The organization's annual spending reached $ 50.6 million in 2011 and $ 69.2 million in 2014.
Video Human Rights Watch
Histori
Human Rights Watch was co-founded by Robert L. Bernstein and Aryeh Neier as an American private NGO in 1978, under the name Helsinki Watch, to monitor Soviet compliance with the Helsinki Accords. Helsinki Watch adopts public practice of "naming and shaming" publicly through media coverage and through direct exchange with policy makers. By highlighting the international spotlight on human rights abuses in the Soviet Union and its partners in Europe, Helsinki Watch said it contributed to the region's democratic transformation in the late 1980s.
American Watch was founded in 1981 when a bloody civil war struck Central America. Relying on the findings of facts on the ground, America Watch not only deals with violations perceived by government forces but also implements international humanitarian law to investigate and expose war crimes by insurgent groups. In addition to raising concerns in affected countries, America Watch also examines the role played by foreign governments, particularly the United States government, in providing military and political support to the cruel regime.
Asia Watch (1985), Africa Watch (1988), and Middle East Watch (1989) added to the so-called " The Watch Committees ". In 1988, all these committees were united under one umbrella to form Human Rights Watch.
Maps Human Rights Watch
Profile
Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Watch (HRW) opposes violations of human rights under UDHR. This includes death penalty and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. HRW supports freedom with respect to basic human rights, such as freedom of religion and freedom of the press. HRW seeks to achieve change by pressuring governments publicly and their policymakers to curb human rights abuses, and by convincing stronger governments to use their influence on governments that violate human rights.
Human Rights Watch publishes a research report on violations of international human rights norms established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and what it considers other internationally accepted human rights norms. These reports are used as a basis for attracting international attention to violations and pressuring governments and international organizations to reform. Researchers conduct fact-finding missions to investigate suspect situations as well as using diplomacy, keep in touch with victims, create public and individual files, and provide the security they need in critical situations and in the right time generate coverage in local and international media. Issues raised by Human Rights Watch in its report include social and gender discrimination, torture, military use of children, political corruption, violations of the criminal justice system, and the legalization of abortion. HRW has documented and reported numerous violations of international war law and humanitarian law.
Human Rights Watch also supports writers worldwide, who are being persecuted for their work and in need of financial assistance. The Hellman/Hammett grant was financed by Lillian Hellman playwright's treasures with funds prepared for his name and his companion, novelist Dashiell Hammett. In addition to providing financial assistance, Hellman/Hammett's help helps raise international awareness of activists who are silenced for speaking out for human rights.
Every year, Human Rights Watch presents Human Rights Defenders to activists around the world who demonstrate leadership and courage in defending human rights. Award winners work closely with HRW in investigating and exposing human rights abuses.
Human Rights Watch was one of six international NGOs that established the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers in 1998. It is also the joint chair of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a global coalition of successful lobbying civil society groups to introduce the Ottawa Agreement, an agreement which prohibits the use of anti-personnel landmines.
Human Rights Watch is a founding member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a global network of non-governmental organizations monitoring sensors worldwide. It also founded the Coalition of Cluster Munitions, which brought the international convention to ban arms. HRW employs over 275 staff - state experts, lawyers, journalists, and academics - and operates in over 90 countries worldwide. HRW retains direct access to most of the countries it reports. Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, Iran, Israel, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Venezuela are among the few countries that have blocked access for HRW staff members.
HRW's current executive director is Kenneth Roth, who has held this position since 1993. Roth investigated the violations in Poland after martial law was declared in 1981. He then focused on Haiti, which had just emerged from the Duvalier dictatorship but continued to be troubled by trouble. Roth's awareness of the importance of human rights began with the stories his father told of fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938. Roth graduated from Yale Law School and Brown University.
Allegations of bias
HRW has been criticized for being biased by national governments that have been investigated for human rights violations, and by NGO Monitor, and founder of HRW, and former Chairman, Robert L. Bernstein. The allegations of Bias include undue influence by US government policy, and claim that HRW is biased either for or against Israel. HRW has openly responded, and is often rejected, criticized for its reporting and findings.
Comparison with Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are two Western-oriented international human rights organizations operating in most situations of severe oppression or torture worldwide. The main difference lies in the structure and method of the group to drive change.
Amnesty International is a mass membership organization. The mobilization of such members is an organizational center advocacy tool. Human Rights Watch's main products are research directed at long-term crises and reports, while Amnesty International lobbies and writes detailed reports, but also focuses on campaigning of mass mailings, adopting individuals as "prisoners of conscience" and lobbying for their release. Human Rights Watch will publicly lobby for special measures for other governments to combat human rights abusers, including naming certain individuals for arrest, or for sanctions to be imposed on certain countries, recently called for sanctions on top leaders in Sudan who has been monitoring an assassination campaign in Darfur. The group also called for human rights activists who have been detained in Sudan for release.
His documentation of human rights violations often includes an extensive analysis of the political and historical background of the conflict, some of which have been published in academic journals. The AI ​​report, on the other hand, tends to contain little analysis, and instead focuses on specific rights violations.
In 2010, The Times London wrote that HRW has been "all but blocked" by Amnesty International. According to The Times , instead of being supported by bulk membership, such as AI, HRW relies on rich donors who like to see organizational reports make headlines. For this reason, according to The Times , HRW tends to "concentrate too much on places the media cares about", especially in disproportionate coverage of Israel.
Financing and services
For the financial year ending June 2008, HRW reported receiving approximately US $ 44 million in public donations. In 2009, Human Rights Watch stated that they receive almost 75% of their financial support from North America, 25% from Western Europe and less than 1% from around the world.
According to the 2008 financial statements, HRW reported that they did not receive direct or indirect funding from the government and were financed through contributions from individuals and private foundations.
The philanthropist and philanthropist George Soros of the Open Society Foundation announced in 2010 its intention to award US $ 100 million to HRW for ten years to help expand its business internationally. He said, "Human Rights Watch is one of the most effective organizations I support, human rights support our greatest aspirations: they are at the heart of open society." The donation raises 300 Human Rights Watch operations staff of 120 people. Donations are the largest in the history of the organization.
Charity Navigator assigned a four-star overall rating to Human Rights Watch, and its financial ratings increased from three stars by 2015 to a maximum of four in June 2016. Better Business Bureau says Human Rights Watch meets charitable accountability standards.
Human Rights Watch publishes the following program and details of support services spending for the financial year ending June 2011.
Human Rights Watch publishes the following program and details of support services spending for the financial year ending June 2008.
Important staff
Some current staff members and former Human Rights Watch members:
- Robert L. Bernstein, Founding Emeritus Chair
- Kenneth Roth, Executive Director
- Jan Egeland, Deputy Director and Director of Human Rights Watch Europe
- John Studzinski, Vice Chairman; developing European arm; former Director; members of the Executive Committee; Chairman of the Investment Committee
- Minky Worden, Media Director
- Jamie Fellner, Senior Advisor to the United States Program on Human Rights
- Brad Adams, Asian Director
- Director Scott Long, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights
- Sarah Leah Whitson, Director of Middle East and North Africa
- Joe Stork
- Marc Garlasco, a former member of staff, resigned over a scandal involving his collection of Nazi memorabilia
- Sharon Hom
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- Nabeel Rajab, member of Human Rights Watch's Middle East Division Advisory Committee
Publications
Human Rights Watch publishes reports on various topics and compiles the annual report World which presents an overview of human rights around the world. It has been published by Seven Stories Press since 2006; the current edition of World Bank 2017: Demagogues Threaten Human Rights, was released in January 2017, and covers events in 2016. Human Rights Watch has reported many things such as the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Democratic Republic of Congo immigrants and US sex registries for too many and applications for teenagers.
In the summer of 2004, the Rare Book and the Manuscript Library at Columbia University in New York became the depository for the Human Rights Watch Archives, an active collection that documents decades of human rights investigations around the world. Archives were moved from previous locations in the Norlin Library at the University of Colorado, Boulder. This archive includes administrative files, public relations documents, and case and country files. With a few exceptions for security considerations, the Columbia University community and the public have access to field notes, recordings and transcripts of interviews with alleged victims of human rights abuses, videotapes and audios, and other materials documenting organizational activities since its inception in 1978 as Helsinki Watch.
See also
- The American Freedom Campaign
- Avocats Sans FrontiÃÆ'¨res
- Freedom House
- The Helsinki Committee on Human Rights
- First Human Rights
- International Exchange Expression of Freedom
- Shia rights
- US Human Rights Network
- Academic freedom in the Middle East
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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