DIRECTOR / OREN JACOBY 

A film history that traces the human rights movement to the founding of Human Rights Watch -- first created as “Helsinki Watch” -- to support the fight for freedom in Russia and Eastern Europe.  The efforts of this small group of activists help bring down the Berlin Wall and end the Soviet Union. Then “Americas Watch” responds to the oppression of military dictatorships in 1980’s Latin America, standing by menaced human rights defenders and demanding they be protected from death squads. These human rights activists had to challenge a U.S. president who sent military aid to the repressive regimes, and was openly hostile to the search for truth and justice in the hemisphere.

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In the post cold-war world, HRW is portrayed as a strong advocate of women’s rights and a leader in the campaigns to ban landmines and the use of child soldiers, to establish an International Criminal Court, and to support the democracy movement in China.

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Commissioned by Human Rights Watch