The Human Rights Watch Council is an international membership organization that works to increase public support for Human Rights Watch and the human rights cause. The Council’s purpose is “to enlist the public and the international community in the cause of human rights for all.” Members meet regularly to develop timely outreach, advocacy and fundraising initiatives. With four regional committees based in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London, the Council seeks new members in these regions and looks to launch new committees elsewhere in the United States and abroad.

Using the materials, reports, and expertise of Human Rights Watch, Council members work to educate the public about pressing human rights concerns. They engage local leaders, organize local editorial board meetings, and host a wide range of public events, such as lectures, roundtables, briefings for professional associations, open dialogue sessions with policy makers, and issue-focused receptions, as well as public film and video screenings.
Recent outreach efforts have focused on the International Criminal Court; the campaign to stop the use of child soldiers; trafficking of women and children; discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens; sexual abuse of women in prisons; and other issues. The Council recently hosted a series of public events to mark the publication of Tibet Since 1950: Silence, Death or Exile, including an event at Lincoln Center that featured an exhibition of photographs from the book. In January 2000, the Council organized an open public dialogue to discuss a range of human rights issues with Richard Holbrooke, United States ambassador to the United Nations.

Council members also use their personal resources and influence to help Human Rights Watch advance its ideas and objectives. Members write advocacy letters to international, national and local leaders, convene advocacy meetings with relevant policy makers, draft op-ed pieces and letters to the editor, represent Human Rights Watch at important international conferences, join field missions, and help to monitor human rights violations in the United States and around the world.

Council members have recently undertaken several challenging advocacy concerns, including decrying the disturbing pattern and practice of police brutality in New York and Los Angeles, promoting an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that raises the minimum age for active combat to eighteen, and seeking ratification of the women’s rights convention.

The Council offers concerned citizens an opportunity to advance the cause of human rights through a unique partnership with others who share their conviction and commitment.