There was nothing uniquely New York about the Human Rights Watch dinner Thursday. A sense of place seemed trivial in the course of honoring three activists bent on seeking justice: Verónica Cruz of Mexico, Mandira Sharma of Nepal, and Arnold Tsunga of Zimbabwe.

Ms. Cruz helps Mexican rape victims secure the right to a legal abortion even as doctors and police officers tell them to marry their rapists and have the child.

In the midst of a bloody civil war in Nepal, Ms. Sharma is demanding that both sides account for thousands of people who have disappeared, which often means telling a mother her child has been tortured and killed.

Mr. Tsunga is seeking reparations and resettlement for the 700,000 Zimbabweans whose homes and towns have been leveled at the order of the country’s president, Robert Mugabe.

All three activists rely on various legal systems to effect change, but their effectiveness greatly depends on the world’s attention. Human Rights Watch has organized dinners to honor them not only in New York (the first stop), but also in London; Toronto; Chicago; Munich, Germany; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Los Angeles; Geneva, and San Francisco.

“The partnership with Human Rights Watch has given us a stamp of credibility,” Mr. Tsunga said. When Mr. Tsunga was on trial in September, the judge threw out the charges. “Mugabe knew the world was watching,” a Human Rights Watch researcher, Tiseke Kasambala, who stood by him in the courtroom, said.

Ms. Cruz’s organization was not turned away by government officials once Human Rights Watch had documented the obstacles rape victims face to secure an abortion. “Now I haul out the report and they have to deal with me,” she said.

Ms. Sharma of Nepal asked the more than 500 guests gathered in the auditorium at the American Museum of Natural History to contemplate the injustice she fights everyday. “Imagine if when you walked into the museum tonight, someone came and took your loved one away and said he or she would be back in 10 minutes. But he or she doesn’t come back, and there is no one who can tell you what has happened. … The people of Nepal live with this feeling of loss every day.”

There was no mention in the evening’s public remarks of Human Rights Watch’s recent campaign against Israel, a campaign that has drawn criticism from representatives of the Israeli government and from many American Jewish groups.