The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights was founded on December 18, 1975, three months before the military coup that marked the beginning of the dictatorship known as the National Reorganization Process (1976–1983), in the House of Spiritual Exercises within the Church of Santa Cruz, as a result of an initiative of Rosa Pantaleón.
Other founders included the Bishop of Neuquén, Jaime de Nevares; Rabbi Marshall Meyer; Bishop Carlos Gatinoni; Alicia Moreau de Justo; Raúl Alfonsín; Oscar Alende; Susana Pérez Gallart; Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Alfredo Bravo.
Nowadays, the financial resources of the organization is composed of: Until december 2015, the three co-presidents of the APDH are Norma Ríos, Gisela Cardozo y Ernesto Moreau.
Some of the individuals that compose the APDH are: journalist Luisa Valmaggia, writer Ernesto Sábato and Noé Jitrik, religious leaders Monsignor Justo Laguna and Rabbi Daniel Goldman, painter Luis Felipe Noé, singer León Gieco, scientist Federico Westerkamp, lawyer Raúl Zaffaroni, and labor unionist Marta Maffei.
Amongst these are: • National Security, a republican system of government and individual rights (Seguridad Nacional, sistema republicano de Gobierno y derechos individuales) • The forced disappearance of Persons (La Desaparición forzada de Personas) • The Disappearance as a crime against humanity (La desaparición como crimen de lesa humanidad) • “Racism and violence” (about ethnic groups in history within scholarly texts) (Racismo y violencia (sobre la historia y las etnias en los textos escolares)) • The working woman and her rights (La mujer trabajadora y sus derechos) • Domestic violence – Battered women (Violencia familiar-Mujer golpeada) • Drug addicts, Victims or Culprits?