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Helsinki Watch

Helsinki Watch was an American NGO founded in 1978 devoted to making sure the signatories of the 1975 Helsinki Accords respected human rights. They published reports and were known to name and shame states that did not comply. Helsinki Watch was inspired by the Moscow Helsinki Group. Helsinki Watch later became Human Rights Watch in 1988. Funding at first was from a few organizations but gradually attracted more donors. Soviet tensions were often at the centre of Helsinki Watch's concern.

Origin
Helsinki Watch was created following the adoption of the Helsinki Final Act by the US, Canada and 33 European states as a result of the Conference on Security and Co-Operation in Europe (CSCE). The 1975 Helsinki Accords accepted the borders put in place by the Soviet Union and assured the respect of human rights by all signatories. Helsinki Watch was created by Robert L. Bernstein, who was at that time the CEO of Random House and chairman of the Fund for Free Expression. During a business trip to Moscow, Bernstein became aware of the persecution that was occurring at that time in the Soviet Union. Once Bernstein came back to the United States, he agreed to form Helsinki Watch along with the help of Aryeh Neier who had been the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union and Orville Schell Jr. who would become the co-founders of this organization. Bernstein also had help from Jeri Laber and Edward Kline. It is in 1978 that Helsinki Watch was formerly created modeled after Yuri Orlov’s Moscow Helsinki Group, which tasked themselves with monitoring the Soviet Union’s compliance with the Helsinki Accords.

Goal
The goal of Helsinki Watch was to make sure signatories of the 1975 Helsinki Accords were complying, especially in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Helsinki Watch tried to stay impartial in the Cold War by criticizing both the East and the West. One of the first objectives of Helsinki Watch was to demand the release of the members of the Moscow Helsinki Group who had been imprisoned in the Soviet Union.

Funding
Initial funding for Helsinki Watch came from the Ford Foundation. The first grant they received was of $25,000. Helsinki Watch received $400,000 over a period of two years from the Ford Foundation. Then, Helsinki Watch got support from the MacArthur Foundation. Aryeh Neier also sought financial support from George Soros, who continues to contribute to Human Rights Watch today. Other wealthy individuals have contributed millions of dollars over the years. It had always been a priority for Helsinki Watch to have many supporters, so that if any donor withdraws their funding, the organization will not suffer. This also gave the NGO the power not to be influenced by certain donors because they could manage without their support. This gave credibility to the organization, according to Neier.

Scientific Boycott
During the Cold War, in an attempt to diffuse the situation, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Soviet Academy of Sciences participated in scientific exchanges. Following the imprisonment of Andrei Sakharov, Anatoly Shcharansky, and Yuri Orlov, physicist and founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group, scientists from the United States joined to protest their imprisonment. This led Jeri Laber, the head of the Helsinki Watch at the time, to petition to Jimmy Carter her concerns for the issue. Scientists from the U.S. pushed for a boycott of the scientific exchanges.

Criticism of Scientific Boycott
Physicist Victor Weisskopf expressed his concerns to Helsinki Watch that the scientific boycott might push the Soviet Union to take harsher measures on imprisoned scientists.

Development
Helsinki Watch was the first of five Watch Committees to be created. While Helsinki Watch’s focus was on human rights violations in the Soviet Union and the US, Americas Watch was created in 1981 to monitor the civil wars and conflicts in Central America. Shortly after came Asia Watch in 1985, Africa Watch in 1988, and Middle East Watch in 1989. It is in 1989 that the five Watch Committees joined under the name Human Rights Watch.

Comments Peer-review (Mathilde Butler)

This is a very precise, yet concise draft, especially the parts regarding the origin, as well as the funding of Helsinki Watch. A lot of information such as names and dates are included, which is what one looks for in a Wikipedia article I believe. It promises for an interesting full article. Also, I suppose concrete examples of activities will be added. Once there is more content, the introduction will be longer as well.

Peer review: Duncan Crabtree
Good lead section. Short and to the point. Do watch for punctuation errors. Perhaps on the note of style, you might want to briefly state the founders of the NGO as that is a topic you address in your article.

Very detailed and informative Origin section. Some misleading lexicon in this section: (accepted vs. divided, formerly vs. formally). Perhaps consider linking to the Wikipedia pages of the founders if they exist.

I really like your explanation of the funding. It is clear and makes good sense. Could you elaborate further on which wealthy donors give to this organisation? Please review grammar at the beginning of funding section.

Has there been any criticism of Helsinki watch about where it drew its funding, its partiality, or the way it collected its evidence of human rights violations. These might be interesting and relevant viewpoints to include in your article. I would be interested to know how the world viewed this NGO i.e. response of governments to their activity or the reception of the public of the countries about which it reported.

Do make sure that when you use a source for a second time, you don't re-enter the source information to cite but rather re-use it so that the amount of sources you actually use for your article is accurately represented in the references section. Currently there is more than one entry for most sources.

Overall a great article but as mentioned in the comment above, concrete examples of activities and times that Helsinki watch criticised the two great powers of the Cold War would be very welcome. With some more evidence this article is on its way to being a very good addition to Wikipedia.