The human rights watchdog, Karapatan, documented 169,530 human rights violations against individuals, 18,515 against families, 71 against communities, and 196 against households.

Human rights watchdogs believe that much of the sexism and homophobia that erupts is tied to male frustration with unemployment and poverty.

Though rights watchdogs have criticised the law's tightening of state control over the media, its passage met with broad public acceptance in the territory.

That remains true in parts of Russia, according to an October report by Moscow Helsinki Group, the human rights watchdog.

Shia political activists and international human rights watchdogs warned of a "drift back to full-blown authoritarianism."

Their trial had been criticised as "grossly unfair" by a coalition of seven rights watchdogs including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch earlier this month.

New York based human rights watchdog HRIC has been labelled by the Chinese government as a hostile organization.

The commission was established in 1957 as an independent civil rights watchdog.

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have been under the close scrutiny of human rights watchdogs for some time now because of the deterioration in democratic conditions.

In this, its 300th anniversary year, its role as human rights watchdog is as vital now as ever it was.