Human rights group
Encyclopedia
A human rights group, also known in United States of America as 'civil liberties group' is a Non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

 which is an advocate for human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 through identification of their violation, collecting incident data, its analysis and publication, promotion of public awareness while conducting institutional advocacy, and lobbying to halt these violations.

Like other NGOs, human rights groups are defined in their characteristics by legal, including taxation, constraints under which they operate, such as
1. is 'non-governmental' meaning that it is established by private initiative, is free from governmental influence, and does not perform public functions.
2. has an aim that is not-for-profit, meaning that if any profits are earned by the organisation they are not distributed to its members but used in the pursuit of its objective,
3. does not use or promote violence or have clear connections with criminality, and
4. has a formal existence with a statute and a democratic and representative structure, and does normally, but not necessarily, enjoy legal personality
Legal personality
Legal personality is the characteristic of a non-human entity regarded by law to have the status of a person....

 under national law.


What distinguishes a human rights group from other political elements of any given society is that while political advocates usually seeking to protect only the rights of their own constituents, a human rights group seeks to defend the same rights for all members of that or any other society.

Unlike political groups which seek to advance their own discrete interests or programs a human rights group attempts to keep the political process open to all legitimate participants in the societal conflicts where such human rights violations occur. This generally independent focus distinguishes human rights groups from sectarian and partisan groups such as for example trades unions, whose primary goal is to protect the interests of the members of unions.

Human rights groups are sometimes confused with humanitarian organizations and groups representing lobbies focused on specific issue lobbies, while most seek to distinguishing themselves from political movements involved in the conflicts that are often causes of the human rights abuses.

Often human rights groups claim expert knowledge on the issue or issues it surveys through Human rights observers as field researchers.

One of the best known international human rights groups is Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

. However it, like many other groups has stretched the definition of a human rights group because aside from not being a single-issue advocate, it has also ventured into issues that are not clearly human rights.

There are some governmental organisations that are also named human rights group, such as the UK Parliamentary Human Rights Group, but which are primarily reporting groups for the purpose of policy design.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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