Who we are:
From 1995-98, People's Watch concentrated its activities on monitoring of human rights violations. This was the mandate of its governing body and the Program Advisory Board. It was soon realized that monitoring alone was insufficient. In 1998, People's Watch began legal intervention on behalf of victims. By 2000, this work had grown and more field monitoring associates were hired at both zonal and regional levels. By 2001, People's Watch was working in 11 areas of Tamil Nadu. Soon after, the need to launch a full-fledged awareness building Campaign for Human Rights became clear, and this was followed, soon afterward, by the realization that victim rehabilitation was also essential. Monitoring, intervention and even winning compensation from the courts was not enough for those who had survived torture, abuse and imprisonment. They desperately needed medical, psychological and vocational help as well. Preceding the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, People's Watch began a vigorous training and education program.
VISION:
A society free from human rights violations and discrimination to be built through cultivating a human rights culture and building a participatory democracy.
MISSION
- Protection of human rights through monitoring human rights violations, intervention and building solidarity with peoples’ struggle for human rights.
- Promoting human rights culture through education and conscientising the larger community.
For over 14 years, People’s Watch has fought for the protection and promotion of human rights in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. (In the past decade, People’s Watch shortened its name from “People’s Watch Tamil Nadu” as it broadened its focus to national concerns.) People’s Watch has similarly expanded its activities beyond human rights monitoring and reporting. Today, it pursues a holistic approach to championing human rights through everything from pursuing legal remedies on behalf of victims to sheltering victims in a rehabilitation center, to teaching future generations a human rights curriculum and building a citizen’s movement for Human Rights – of ALL RIGHTS for ALL PEOPLES