A specific primary goal was to monitor compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and its follow-up documents.
It was founded in 1982, inspired in part by an appeal from Dr. Andrei Sakharov for the creation of a "unified international committee to defend all Helsinki Watch Group members", and also to co-ordinate their work.
The original members were the independent Helsinki committees of Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United States; an international secretariat was established in Vienna.
The secretariat supported and provided liaison member Helsinki committees and associated human rights groups, and represented them at the international political level.
He channeled money from human rights projects to his bank account, and used the organization's ATM card for personal purposes which went unnoticed for six years.