From Helsinki to Human Rights Watch: How an American Cold War Monitoring Group Became an International Human Rights Institution

Abstract

Human Rights Watch was first founded in 1978 as the U.S. Helsinki Watch Committee, an organization modeled after a domestic human rights monitoring group formed by a collection of Moscow dissidents. HRW’s current “global” mandate is the result of a gradual shift away from a model of legitimacy based on country-specific committees monitoring domestic compliance with international norms to one based on a more supranational human rights regime. Throughout, the organization’s connection to the United States has been both a challenge to overcome and a strength to build on. It is no accident that the U.S. Helsinki Watch Committee, alone of the various Helsinki monitoring groups, can now lay claim to international status.

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