Wikipedia's first sentence called it “international ngo based in new york city”. Today it says “international non-governmental watchdog organization”. Sections present on October 6, 2023 no longer exist: “Profile; Financing and services; Notable staff”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005
Human Rights Watch is an international NGO based in New York City , USA , that works with human rights issues. The organization was started under the name Helsinki Watch in 1978 to monitor the Soviet Union 's compliance with the Helsinki Accords . Other watch organizations were started to cover other parts of the world. They were united in 1988 and formed Human Rights Watch. Whereas most other groups are focused on advocacy and public pressure , HRW's specialty is the production of reports , to establish the details needed for others to do advocacy work. Major issues raised by the organization in its reports include social and gender discrimination, government corruption, and abuses in criminal justice systems in many nations. Human Rights Watch was one of six international NGOs that founded the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers in 1998 . HRW later spun off several regional Watch groups, e.g., Americas Watch,..., and Index on Censorship , a UK-based magazine monitoring the freedom of the press around the globe. Human Rights Watch is also a member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange , a virtual network of non-governmental organisations that monitors free expression violations worldwide and campaigns to defend journalists, writers and human rights activists. Like most human rights groups, Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty , and opposes restrictions to abortion .1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 15941693.
The opening as it stood in 2010 10 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Human Rights Watch (formerly Helsinki Watch ) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 370930584.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Current executive Director Kenneth Roth speaking at the 44th Munich Security Conference 2008 Human Rights Watch ( HRW ) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights .HRW headquarters are in New York City with offices in Amsterdam , Beirut , Berlin , Brussels , Chicago , Geneva , Johannesburg , London , Los Angeles , Moscow , Nairobi , Paris , San Francisco , Sydney , Tokyo , Toronto , Washington, D.C. , and Zurich .As of June 2011, the organization’s annual expenses totaled $50.6 million.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 667346978.
The opening as it stood in 2020 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Current executive Director Kenneth Roth speaking at the 44th Munich Security Conference 2008 Human Rights Watch ( HRW ) is an international non-governmental organization , headquartered in New York City , that conducts research and advocacy on human rights . The group pressures some governments, policy makers and human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and the group often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants and political prisoners.Human Rights Watch in 1997 shared in the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and it played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions .The organization's annual expenses totaled $50.6 million in 2011, $69.2 million in 2014, and $75.5 million in 2017.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 962785614.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Former executive Director Kenneth Roth speaking at the 44th Munich Security Conference 2008 Human Rights Watch ( HRW ) is an international non-governmental organization headquartered in New York City that conducts research and advocacy on human rights . The group pressures governments, policymakers, companies, and individual human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners.In 1997, Human Rights Watch shared the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines . It played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions . HRW's annual expenses totaled $50.6 million in 2011, $69.2 million in 2014, and $75.5 million in 2017.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1175950122.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Former executive Director Kenneth Roth speaking at the 44th Munich Security Conference 2008 Human Rights Watch ( HRW ) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights . Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including war crimes , crimes against humanity , child labor , torture , human trafficking , and women's and LGBTQ rights .It pressures governments, policymakers, companies, and individual abusers to respect human rights, and frequently works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners.The organization was founded in 1978 as Helsinki Watch , whose purpose was to monitor the Soviet Union 's compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords .Its separate global divisions merged into Human Rights Watch in 1988.The group publishes annual reports on about 100 countries with the goal of providing an overview of the worldwide state of human rights. In 1997, HRW shared the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines . It played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions . HRW's annual expenses totaled $50.6 million in 2011, $69.2 million in 2014, and $75.5 million in 2017.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1294948529. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “international ngo based in new york city”. Today it says “international non-governmental watchdog organization”. Sections present on October 6, 2023 no longer exist: “Profile; Financing and services; Notable staff”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
international ngo based in new york city
Now
international non-governmental watchdog organization
Sections that no longer exist
Present on October 6, 2023, absent today, with no near-matching heading in the current article and the article shorter overall, so this is not a renamed heading or a topic absorbed into a fuller treatment. 3 sections of 400 characters or more gone since October 6 2023, with the article 6,651 characters shorter.
Profile
Financing and services
Notable staff
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
