Human Rights Watch

www.hrw.org

Human Rights Organizations United States

Description

Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on human rights abuses around the world. It employs roughly 500 people of more than 70 nationalities, including country experts, lawyers and journalists, who work to protect people at risk, from vulnerable minorities and civilians in wartime to refugees and children in need. The organization directs its advocacy at governments, armed groups and businesses, pushing them to change or enforce laws and policies, and it refuses government funding to preserve its independence.

Human Rights Watch was founded in 1978 as Helsinki Watch, originally investigating rights abuses in countries that had signed the Helsinki Accords, and its work has since expanded to five continents. Researchers work in the field in around a hundred countries, gathering facts that document abuses. The findings are shared through news media and social channels, and used to press governments, the United Nations, armed groups and corporations to change policy, enforce laws and deliver justice. Research methods include in-person interviews, satellite imagery and analysis of large datasets.

Human Rights Watch describes itself as a group of affiliated charities, including a United States nonprofit corporation, operating together under the Human Rights Watch name. It maintains offices in cities including New York, Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Nairobi, Oslo, Paris, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Stockholm, Tokyo, Toronto, Washington DC and Zurich.

Latest news

  • Niger Rejects Key Rights Recommendations at UN Review

    Click to expand Image Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani of Niger attends the Alliance of Sahel States second summit on security and development, in Bamako, Mali, December 23, 2025. © 2025 Mali Government Information Center via AP Niger has rejected key recommendations raised by United Nations member...

    26 Sep 2026

  • Niger Rejects Key Rights Recommendations at UN Review

    Niger has rejected key recommendations raised by United Nations member countries during its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) earlier this year, including calls to address arbitrary detention, discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and accountability for...

    25 Sep 2026

  • Ethiopia: Indiscriminate Airstrike in Tigray

    Click to expand Image A collapsed wall in a residential house following the August 20, 2026 airstrike on a residential compound in Daero neighborhood, Mekelle, Tigray region, Ethiopia. The image was taken the same day by a Mekelle resident. © 2026 Private (Nairobi) – An apparent Ethiopian...

    25 Sep 2026

  • Array of Experts Back Lawsuit Challenging Trump’s ICC Sanctions Regime

    Click to expand Image Thurgood Marshall United States Federal Courthouse building in lower Manhattan, New York City. © 2026 Laura Prieto Uribe/Human Rights Watch (New York) – An array of former government officials, human rights groups, bar associations, and legal experts from around the world...

    25 Sep 2026

  • US: Trump Administration Rejects External Election Observers

    Click to expand Image A voter filling out a ballot at the Green Spring Gardens polling station in Lincolnia, Virginia, US, June 20, 2023. © 2023 Minh Connors/The Washington Post via AP Photo (New York) – The Trump administration’s decision not to invite the leading international election...

    25 Sep 2026

  • Russia Crackdown on Bypassing Online Censorship

    Click to expand Image A person checks their phone in the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, March 31, 2026. © 2026 Pavel Bednyakov/AP Photo (Berlin, September 24, 2026) – Russian authorities are doubling down on their efforts to quash freedom of expression, including access to information, by...

    24 Sep 2026

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