Helsinki Committee for Human Rights

Not to be confused with Helsinki Commission (disambiguation).

The Helsinki Committees for Human Rights exist in many European countries (the OSCE region) as volunteer, non-profit organizations devoted to human rights and presumably named after the Helsinki Accords. Formerly organized into the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights based in Vienna.

The Helsinki Committees began as Helsinki Watch groups. The first one was founded in the Soviet Union in 1976, the second in 1977 in Czechoslovakia, the third in 1979 in Poland, etc.

In 1982, representatives of several of these committees held an International Citizens Helsinki Watch Conference and founded the IHF.

In 1992, a British Helsinki Human Rights Group was established in the UK, but this group has always been completely independent of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. The UK's official representative in the IHF is the British Helsinki Subcommittee of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, established in 1976.

Country organizations

• Switzerland: Swiss Helsinki Committee for democracy, Rule of law and Human Rights

• Belarus: Belarus Helsinki Committee
• Bulgaria: Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
• Croatia: Croatian Helsinki Committee
• Czech Republic: Czech Helsinki Committee
• Hungary: Hungarian Helsinki Committee
• Lithuania: Lithuanian Helsinki Group
• Norway: Norwegian Helsinki Committee
• The Netherlands: Netherlands Helsinki Committee
• Serbia: Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
• Slovakia: Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Slovakia
• Sweden: Civil Rights Defenders
• Turkey: Helsinki Citizens' Assembly
• Ukraine: Ukrainian Helsinki Group

See also

• Human Rights Watch

External links

• Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
• Czech Helsinki Committee
• Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the Republic of Macedonia
• International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights - close down notice
• "Human rights movement active despite fraud scandal, former director says"