"We were trying to create symbol that did not refer to the concept of a nation – nothing akin to a flag, no symbol that might suggest one national identity or civil structure, such as a crest or shield image. Above all, we didn’t want this logo to look as if originating from American iconography.

"We discarded any symbol that referred to imprisonment themes such as chains, walls, or barbed wire. The physicality of such symbols again refer back to specific conditions within a social context -how justice is applied in a particular country- and not the wider and more complex scope of Human Right Watch mission"

"The image of the globe is culturally outdated. Ideas of country, nation state, identity and race are no longer specific to geographical lines and borders. This logo looks forward. The logo looks beyond Cold War idea of East and West, North and South, one region opposing another. We want to transcend cultural identifiers that would in turn bring this very ideas to the new Mark."

"The viewer (when presented with the Mark) should not infer any political, ideological, or humanistic ideas but in turn get engaged with the actual content and mission that drives Human Rights Watch. This Mark is different from the logos of Amnesty or Greenpeace, that have now come to represent a political stance. The public sees in their logo a political agenda. When someone approaches you with a Greenpeace membership, the piece of paper is green. This makes sense, in one way, but it is also limiting. They have trouble now reaching beyond their natural constituency.

"If we were to choose a logo that is more humanistic, that had more obvious symbolic elements or that provoked a more emotional response in the viewer, we might reach the natural constituency of Human Rights Watch more quickly. But we would ultimately be limited by it.

"This Mark may not come across as an emotionally engaging symbol, because of its simplicity, and because we have intentionally stripped it of symbolic meaning. But the work of Human Rights Watch will inform the Mark, not the other way around. The emotional strength and power of the Mark will be infused by all the combined history meaning of 25 years of commitment towards the rights of individuals all over the globe".

"The idea of global reach is still present in this design. We went back to the idea of the globe, or more accurately to the primordial idea of a circle, with its associations of unity, wholeness, and protection. Juxtaposed with the rectangular shape (that had in it the name), the two shapes together generated the energy and universality that we where looking for"

"HRW has established a strong visual identity in its report covers and website. The new Mark does not compete with that material. We are linked to the emotional context of a human rights situation by the images used in the reports and most of all by the content presented in them, not by the Mark."

"The work of Human Rights Watch is thorough, serious, sober, and mature. We do not ask our readers to see the solution to human rights problems in emotional terms. We are not trying to catapult our viewers into writing letters or marching in the streets. We are asking for a relatively sophisticated intellectual response to our reports. There is an implied respect for the victims and even for the perpetrators in the relative coolness of our emotionalism. Our ‘look’ is calm, not in-your-face. The mark should not compete with that, or overwhelm it."

"Instead, the Mark should help us to reach a constituency that is outside our circle. We are not going with something natural for people who know the organization, or with people who have specific expectations. If you see the logo you don’t immediately know what the organization does. But that’s precisely why it is the right logo for Human Rights Watch at this time, as it grows to encompass new constituencies, new countries, and new bases of support."