Human Rights Watch (Organization)

BIOGHIST REQUIRED This Record Group contains the records of Human Rights Watch/Asia (AW). Established in 1985, Asia Watch monitors and promotes the observance of internationally recognized human rights in Asia. Since its founding, AW has kept refining a three-pronged strategy of documentation, campaigning, and lobbying to expose abuses in the region. By the late 1980s, this strategy came to fruition with regard to China. To illustrate, even before the Tiananmen Square Massacre, AW had been working with Chinese human rights groups to support efforts to record the plight of Chinese political prisoners. In early May 1989, in turn, an AW mission traveled to Beijing in order to speak with pro-democracy demonstrators. These labors were combined with first-hand reports and lobbying campaigns before Congress. Asia Watch China Specialist, Robin Munro, for example, wrote an eyewitness account of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. AW executive staff, in turn, became vocal advocates for sanctions against China on Capitol Hill. Finally, AW set up a branch headquarters in Hong Kong. This office enabled AW to tap into the extensive information-gathering network in Hong Kong. It also facilitated work on behalf of pro-democracy activists who escaped there after the massacre.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Through the 1990s, through their three-pronged model, AW had expanded the number of countries it covered, the issues it addressed and the advocacy techniques it employed in the region. AW, for example, began seeking allies within the NGO and business communities in Europe and Japan in order to bring more direct pressure on human rights offenders in Asia.

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