Here's a comprehensive summary of the Wikipedia article on Human Rights Watch:
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is a leading international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, dedicated to investigating and advocating for human rights worldwide. It conducts extensive research and reports on critical issues such as war crimes, torture, child labor, and LGBTQ+ rights, actively pressuring governments and individual abusers to uphold human rights principles.
The organization was founded in 1978 as Helsinki Watch, initially focused on monitoring the Soviet Union's compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. After expanding to cover other regions, these "Watch Committees" merged to form Human Rights Watch in 1988, adopting a strategy of publicly "naming and shaming" abusive regimes through media and direct engagement.
HRW has been instrumental in shaping international human rights law, sharing the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and playing a key role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions. The group publishes annual reports on the human rights situation in approximately 100 countries.
More recently, HRW's influential work includes a 2021 report accusing Israel of apartheid and its executive director, Kenneth Roth, being sanctioned by the Chinese government in 2020 for supporting the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, which led to HRW's departure from Hong Kong. The organization continues to face challenges, such as a 2023 incident where Bahrain canceled entry permits for HRW staff.