d. nongovernmental organizations
Although the idea was an old one, human rights became a political buzzword in the United States in the 1970s. Don Fraser, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota, began pressing the Nixon administration in 1973 to monitor the human rights records of nations that received U.S. aid, a position that Congress increasingly supported. Meanwhile, liberals in government and academia who had prioritized disarmament in previous years turned their attention to human rights. Finally, a new set of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) assumed leadership of an International human rights movement. The London-based organization Amnesty International, with growing support in the United States, received the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize for its campaign to end torture. The American NGO Helsinki Watch was founded in 1978 to monitor Soviet compliance with the Helsinki Accords, but the organization soon expanded its oversight to Central America and other parts of the world, shaming governments that violated human rights standards.