Human Rights Watch Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Human Rights Watch - Essay Example The idea of human rights was developed and the rights and responsibilities of each individual were developed. As people gave their will over to governments, it became necessary for the government to have various responsibilities to protect the individual. This is how the rights of the individual were developed (Moehler 2008). In Asia, the code of Hammurabi is seen to be the earliest codification of human rights. It defined the rights and responsibilities of each individual. The code which included over two hundred clauses, also included such as issues as consumer protection in the form of outlining the responsibilities of builders to their customers. For instance, if a builder built a home for a customer and the home collapsed on the owner in a specific period of time, the builder would be sentenced to death. In Europe, the dawn of human rights can be seen as having started with the signing of the Magna Carter in the year. This was provoked by the acts of King John which led to many people, including the church and other sources of authorities being unhappy with the way King John of England was trying to restructure the power structure and to give himself much power. The King was forced to sing the Magna Carter which among other things described some of the earliest codifications of human rights in Europe. These rights included the right of the church to operate without manipulation from the government and also some individual rights which must be protected by the state. The Human Rights Watch was founded in 1978 under the name of Helsinki Watch. Its scope of activities back then was narrowed mainly to watching the compliance of Russia to the Helsinki Accords. The idea was to watch, name and shame the abuse of power by governments with regard to human rights. Later, Americas Watch was founded in 1981 as a way to watch human rights violation in America with the rise of civil wars in the