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In 1978, Helsinki Watch was established by Robert L. Bernstein as a private American NGO designed to monitor the former Soviet Union’s compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Expanding in size and scope, Helsinki Watch began using media coverage to document human rights violations committed by abusive governments Since its inception, it has produced several other watch committees dedicated to monitoring human rights in other parts of the world. In 1988, all of the watch committees were combined to form the Human Rights Watch

In 1988, Helsinki Watch evolved into Human Rights Watch.

Beginnings
Following the multinational agreement establishing the Helsinki Accords in 1975, the Helsinki Watch was established to ensure Eastern Bloc countries undergoing severe civil conflict comply with the provisions originally established in the Helsinki Accords. This was the result of an emergence of pressing requests on behalf of organizations located in Moscow, Prague, and Warsaw who were tasked with monitoring the Soviet Union and regions of Eastern Europe to ensure their compliance in facilitating various human rights pledges made throughout the Accords, many of which were arrested by Soviet authorities in early 1977. One of the primary objectives of Helsinki Watch was to serve as an instrument of advocacy for freeing the imprisoned monitors arrested by Soviet officials, but it’s most noteworthy accomplishments was predicated on promoting civil and political freedoms in the Soviet Union and regions of Eastern Europe. Helsinki Watch developed a means of identifying the corrupt actions of governments by publicly acknowledging unethical behaviour carried out by different governmental bodies through media coverage and directly through policymakers on an international scale.

Transition to Human Rights Watch
As tensions built between the United States and the Soviet Union, The Americas Watch was created in 1981 to avoid criticism of hypocrisy. The Americas watch set out to observe and acknowledge abuses carried out by governmental bodies situated in Central America, and most notably criticized governments such as the United States for their involvement in providing arms and support to dangerous regimes situated in the Americas. The establishment of other similar organizations rapidly increased through their classification as “The Watch Committees” with the creation of the Asia Watch (1985), Africa Watch (1986), and Middle East Watch (1989). In 1988, these committees formally adopted the overarching title of The Human Rights Watch.

Funding
The establishment of the Helsinki Watch was made possible by a $400,000 grant donated by the Ford Foundation.

Timeline

 * 1978 - Creation of Helsinki Watch
 * 1981 - Creation of Americas Watch
 * 1985 - Creation of Asia Watch
 * 1988 - Creation of Africa Watch
 * 1988 - Creation of Human Rights Watch
 * 1989 - Creation of Middle East Watch

Effectiveness
Upon its establishment, the Helsinki Watch immediately became a major organization with significant leverage internationally. Initially, the Helsinki Watch would directly appeal to communist leaders by creating petitions and publically "naming and shaming" abusive governments. When this method proved to be ineffective, they quickly graduated to using political influence from important Western and European politicians to further their mission of influencing government policy both directly and indirectly. As the Helsinki Watch grew it continued to build its reputation of providing accurate and reliable information on human rights violations in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The Helsinki Watch is said to have played an important role in shaping human rights in the 1980s.

Criticism
The Helsinki Watch was initially met with allegations of bias during its early days. It was criticized for narrowing its scope to human rights violations committed by the Soviet bloc while ignoring human rights violations that were occurring in other parts of the world. Many suggested that its strategy of enlisting the help of Europeans to denounce the Soviet Union reflected this. It was specifically criticized for being hypocritical in its reporting, as in its early days it neglected to recognize abuses taking place within America. In response to such criticism, the founders of Helsinki Watch created a new division called Americas Watch. From there the organization expanded rapidly, establishing Watches to cover other parts of the world. In 1988, all of the Helsinki Watch’s separate divisions were amalgamated into one unit called the Human Rights Watch.

Major Publications
Published in 1991 the major publications of The Helsinki Watch include: Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Persecution of Gypsies in Romania Glasnost in Jeopardy: Human Rights in the USSR Human Rights in Northern Ireland Since the Revolution: Human Rights in Romania
 * The Helsinki Watch conducted an interview with regard to eleven attacks on the Gypsy people. The Helsinki Watch revoked the bias by not providing solutions to the incidents provided.
 * Shows an overview of the legal, social and governmental institutions and ways they have created difficulties for the development of human rights in the Soviet Union. The book describes the former president of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev's attempt to reestablish law and order within the Union.
 * This book reports the issues surrounding the "Troubles" within Northern Ireland and helps readers better understand the legal aspects of fighting among parties.
 * This publication shows the attempt of new political culture after the revolution in 1989. The report avoids bias by excluding recommendations on how to solve the continuing issues in Romania.

=Peer Review=

Lead Section: The article could use the addition of a lead section summarizing the main points of the article. It is important to have a strong lead section explaining the topic, and the relevance of the different sections of the article.

Structure: The article has good structure as the sections are organized chronologically, starting with Beginnings to Transitions and later to the Effectiveness and Criticisms. The order of the sections make it easy to read and to follow. The use of a Timeline after Beginnings and Transition was also useful in putting the previous information into perspective. One small issue is the typos in punctuation in the Beginnings paragraph.

Neutral Content: the content describes the conflict between east and west accurately without siding on either side of the struggle. Adding a part which discusses other similar Watches established after the Helskini Watch helps maintain the article's neutrality towards the issue. I thought it was important that you discussed both the Helsinki Watches effectiveness at addressing human rights violations in the 1980's as well as its criticism. Overall the article effectively shows a well rounded, unbiased review of the subject and its role during the Cold War.

Balanced Coverage: explaining the conflict between the east and the west without having a bias to whom was 'right' or 'wrong' kept the coverage very balanced. Both the criticism and effectiveness of the Helskini Watch do a good job of explaining both the good and the bad of the organization. The sections do so without a biased opinion of the criticism and effectiveness ensuring that the coverage is balanced. All in all this article does a very good job displaying balanced and un-opinionated information.

Reliable Sources: Majority of sources are scholarly peer reviewed journals, academic articles, and books and therefore are reliable. The main critique that comes to question is the accuracy of encyclopedias. For most academic work (thesis, essays, etc.) encyclopedias do not count as an creditable source. While this type of source is excellent for developing a deeper understanding of a topic, and a great starting point for gathering knowledge, encyclopedias cannot be counted as a reliable source as they typically contain broad summaries, rather than independent reviewed and researched facts. It would be beneficial to check with Dr. Martin and Griffin to ensure that these are appropriate sources.